• by Larry Dobrow , Featured Columnist, May 30, 2013

I run. I run in races, through crowded thoroughfares, under overgrown shrubbery, over underdrained puddles, after my kid and away from the authorities. I am a willfully, unrepentantly ambulatory being. My morning run is the best part of my day that doesn't involve parenting or salt.

All of this is to say: For the first time in 200-odd of these columns, I have some inkling of a clue as to what I'm talking about. Which is why I'm beyond confident in recommending that anyone with even a vague interest in running - hell, anyone with even a vague interest in the durability of the human spirit - check out "Run For," an alternately inspiring and heartbreaking series of vignettes designed to brand Dick's Sporting Goods as the ultimate runner's outpost.

Since the beginning of March, Dick's has been unveiling one three-or-so-minute clip per week; the 13th and final video should drop, as the kids say, before the day is out. Each has illuminated a different aspect of the runner's will: the desperation that often births it, the stubbornness that bonds it, the sense of purpose that arrives in its wake. Several have reduced me to a blubbering wisp of deflated machismo. For cover, I've been attributing the thick streaks of tears to the eye-reddening broth of sunscreen and sweat that cascades down my face after a workout. Thanks, petrochemical runoff!

The series introduces viewers to 15 or so individuals who have, in one way or another, come to lean upon running as a salve. There's Steve Bell, who is literally and figuratively attempting to outrun his cystic fibrosis. There's Julia Chase, whose daily runs remain a great source of tranquility decades after she helped effect long-overdue change. There's Tony Clark, repeatedly pushing himself to the brink of exhaustion - dude built a "heatbox" in his garage to simulate desert running conditions - in the name of raising awareness of PTSD issues.

From those brief descriptions, you could be excused for thinking that "Run For" is reducible to Inspirationalizingness 101. But the telling of the stories is at once relatable and nakedly personal. Amid a montage of wedding photos, Sally speaks plainly about the role that running played in chipping away at her grief: "I'm becoming more Sally the Runner than Sally the Widow." As images from Dick's annual marathon/half-marathon flash by, Meggan Janota (who works for the company) expresses hope that she'll run again after receiving treatment for cancer, rather than despair that cancer has temporarily taken running away from her.

Their tales are tinged with spirituality, catharsis, desperation, redemption and so much more. They do an uncanny job of conveying the therapeutic and meditative appeals of a daily trot around town. It's all here and it's all rendered with uncommon delicacy.

One might quibble with a few of the particulars. "Run For" pounds the inner-strength gong a bit too often. It goes all-in on the twinkly piano soundtrack and blurry/in-focus juxtapositions that have become sports-featurette mainstays. Important to Dick's and Dick's alone, it packs negligible brand punch. The stories stick with you, not the featured gear (complete with out-of-place "buy it now" button) or the intended retail destination.

That said, the "Run For" vignettes touch the heart and the head with equal assurance. I don't know my reason for running; it probably has something to do with counterbalancing my temple-of-cheese dietary regimen or shrinking my psychic turbulence into mere crippling anxiety. It nonetheless warms me to know that I'm not alone, that others similarly receive from their daily runs a booster shot of peace and purpose. I doubt these clips will transform anyone into a Dick's Sporting Goods regular - we runners tend to chase deals with the same vigor that we chase our demons -  but I can't remember a series that delivered a more powerful double-dose of inspiration and enthusiasm. Who'd have thought Dick's had it in them?