John Bingham is a slow runner. He is not very tall or lean and he passed the middle aged mark some time ago. He was never a fast runner. In fact for most of his life he wasn’t the sort of person who considered running for pleasure or sport or fitness a thing to do. He was a musician and husband and a lot of other things, but runner wasn’t one of them.The thing is John Bingham is most runners. Somewhere along the way, sometime during the crisis period known as middle age when people begin to look at their lives lived so far and re-evaluate and look at the life ahead and begin to panic, John Bingham decided to run to the end of his driveway and it changed his life (Bingham, 1999). Eventually it changed the lives of many other slow runners in the world as well.
I don’t think that John Bingham set out to be a leader. After reading his book “The Courage to Start, a Guide to Running for Your Life” years after experiencing an injury that effectively halted my own running for many years, I’m not sure he set out to do anything at all besides get to the end of his driveway. Bill George’s approach to authentic leadership cites 5 dimensions to the authentic leader: purpose, values, relationships, self-discipline, and passion and I believe that Bingham truly fits the bill (Northouse, 2016). His purpose is clear, it’s simply to experience the joy of running and to encourage others to do the same. His values are joy, adventure, and connecting with others. The relationships that he builds have formed a world-wide community of “Penguins” as he refers to himself and his slow running friends. Self-discipline is what eventually got him beyond the driveway and to the finish line of dozens and dozens of races. Finally his passion is what drives his monthly column in Runners’ World Magazine, his speaking engagements at running events all over the country, what drove him to write a book, and what keeps him bringing up the back of countless races a year.
The philosophy of John Bingham and his Penguins, is that the joy of running comes in finding the pleasure of play again (Bingham, 1999). It’s about reconnecting with a child-like part of your soul that tends to go dormant in adult years and has very few outlets for most adult people. He uses words like “joy” “ecstatic” and “miracle” in reference to the body and to movement frequently. This is something I don’t normally connect with, I’m not what you might call a “self-helper” and I don’t usually buy into the associated lingo, however it’s not really about the lingo. Mostly he encourages people to put on their sneakers and get down the driveway and see what happens next. He believes in the process of discovery through running, the process of building character through running, and the process of discovering a different view of the world through running. Basically running is a process that we should try to just enjoy. Running relationships are also very important in his theories about Penguinhood. Finding the community and connection that not only affords you a place in the running community but opens up the world to you a little bit more (Bignham, 1999).
For many, including myself for a long time, the point of not running to get fast or to be competitive doesn’t compute. I was a competitive runner at one time. There is value to training hard, running fast, and wanting to win. The problem for me came after I couldn’t run fast anymore. The point of running at all if I wasn’t running to win or at least to compete somehow alluded me. Bringing up the back of a race seemed embarrassing. But as Bingham says in many variations throughout his book, there’s nothing wrong with going faster or being competitive if it brings you joy, but even if you come in dead last you covered the same distance as everyone else so who cares?! He even muses on the social differences on what he calls, Really Fast Runners, Kind-Of-Fast Runners, and Back of the Pack Runners when toeing the line at races. I’ve fallen into all of these categories at different times in my life and was very proud of my focus as a Really-Fast-Runner, was mostly injured or recovering from injury as a Kind-Of-Fast Runner, and have the time of my life now as a Back of the Packer. I’ve found that self-helpy jargon aside, running really is the most fun when relax and enjoy it.
For many running is pure torture, for other’s it is a means to a competitive end, and thanks to John Bingham, for the Penguins it is a lot of fun, friends, and adventure all rolled into one. Through his own experiences with running, beginning in middle age, falling into the all of the traps of competition, vanity, and comparisons with other runners, he developed a philosophy that advocates a full, healthy, active life rooted in the spirit of community and fun through running and he has made it his mission in life to share it with other’s. The result is thousands of proud Penguins bringing up the back of the pack, meeting up for beers, and taking long rambling jogs with other Penguins every Saturday. It exemplifies the role that an Authentic leader can play in transforming lives of others. I’ve never enjoyed running more than I do now, and I don’t even mind being slow.
Bingham, J. (1999). The courage to start: A guide to running for your life. New York: Fireside.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
lxs65 says
This blog post was incredible. Not only were you able to incorporate the authentic leadership theory into some form of narrative, you were able to tie in the story of John Bingham along with your own personal examples. The blog was engaging and also insightful. At first glance you might not have even considered the story about John Bingham as an example of leadership but rather personal triumph. However as you point out he was able to lead others through his own authenticity. By being true to himself and even in being vulnerable he was able to have a positive affect on others and attract them to running as well. As you mentioned John’s purpose, passion, values and relationships with others (and himself) led to the formation of the penguins and the establishment of him as an authentic leader. Though some may debate his stance as an actual ‘leader’ I agree wholeheartedly that he is a perfect example of authentic leadership.
I thoroughly appreciated you refreshing approach to this blog and your balance between course materials and personal narrative.