Hello, this is Shawn Rutledge, your Milesplit Oklahoma State Editor. I could not be more excited to get this process started and influence the Oklahoma running community in any positive way that I can. To begin, I want to tell you all about my personal mission for the future of Milesplit OK.
Throughout my time as a runner, the main takeaway has been the incredible community that we have here in Oklahoma. The people that I met through this sport have, and many continue to have, made a massive impact on my life. Whether its friends or mentors, running has brought me great people, and great memories to come along with it. As a runner, I would often get caught up in times or placements, forgetting that we are more than just runners and that much of the value in this sport comes from the people, memories, and lessons that come with it. This outlook is how I view the future of Milesplit OK. Much of Milesplit is rankings and results, but I want to provide more than just that. The effort is to provide a more personable outreach for the running community, with the number one goal being building this great community up, in whatever way I can. With this more personable approach, I'll start out by telling you about myself and my running story.
Running has always been a part of my life. Whether it was playing tag at recess, to then running cross country and track in middle school, quitting for a year, then finding the sport again going into my sophomore year of high school. In high school, I ran for Tulsa Union. I cherish my time there, and it made a true impact on my life thus far. Thankfully, in high school, I made a real effort to get to know not just my teammates, but also my opponents from all around the state. This effort is one of the best decisions I made in high school, and many of my good friends were made from other schools. After high school, I was given the opportunity to compete at Oklahoma Baptist University, and although my time there was short, I'm thankful for what the experience taught me.
This brings me to where I'm at now, I'm a junior at Oklahoma State University majoring in psychology. I do not run competitively anymore, and frankly, my running is inconsistent. I have stretches where I'm running a ton, then times where I'm hardly running at all. This has been a major change in my life, but my decision to leave the competitive side of the sport a couple years back, has proven to be the right one. Thankfully, due to the relationships that I built during my time as a competitive runner, I am still well connected amongst the Oklahoma running community. More so, regardless of my status with the sport, running will always be a major part of my life.
Outside of running, I try to fill my time with various hobbies. This was something I primarily found after quitting competitive running, as I got so caught up in my running that I did not really know what else I enjoyed doing. A big example of a hobby that I plug myself into is music. Whether it's playing guitar, collecting vinyl records for my turntable, or spending hours searching for new music on spotify, it is safe to say that music is a major part of my life. Along with music, some other hobbies of mine are writing scripts or articles, reading, watching and reviewing movies, film photography, and playing/watching basketball. I have to place more influence on the movie and basketball parts of my life though. Movies have been a massive part of my life these last couple years, and my newfound enjoyment of reviewing films has brought me a lot of positives. As for basketball, I've played ever since I can remember. It is a constant in my life, and I'd argue that it is one of the core aspects of many of my longest friendships. Outside of playing ball, watching the OKC Thunder is also something you will find me doing often. For those who follow me on Strava, you have likely seen how I've basically turned my page into a Thunder meme account. Moving on from hobbies, a rock in my life is my faith in Jesus Christ. My beliefs play a consistent role in how I aim to live, and how I approach my running philosophy.
As for the future of Milesplit OK, I am ecstatic to grow the community in the best ways I know how. I feel that this will be accomplished by connecting runners, spreading positivity, and providing the quality content and home base that Oklahoma running needs.
If you have further questions, concerns, ideas, tips, or if interested in helping out, please never hesitate to reach out. We are just getting started here, so any feedback and help is great. I look forward to interacting with many of you all throughout this process, and feel confident in the positive influence that Milesplit OK will have on our great community.
Thanks for reading,
Shawn Rutledge Jr.
milesplitok@gmail.com