EXCERPT:
WALZ: “Running as an act is political, and you know who taught me that? Tim Walz, the first thing he told me when I was first getting into it in high school — granted, I don’t really do it as much anymore, I go in spurts, but when I was first getting into it in high school, the first thing he told me was that running is a privilege and being a part of the running community is a privilege that not all people have access to. Whether you do it recreationally or you race a lot or you are at the elite level, it is a privilege. Whether it be you just having the time to run, access, like, to funds to buy the gear, access to, you know, healthy, quality foods that fuel you as you’re training and as you’re running, access to, you know, a safe, stable situation that allows you to be in a good mental state to be able to run — all of those things are hard to come by. And if you have them and are a part of the running community, that is a privilege. And that, again, was the first thing he taught me.”