Dylan Roche Found That Running Was a Major Theme In His Life Story

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Today, my guest is someone that I’ve been following on social media and finally came to my senses and invited him for a chat.

He is both an author and a runner and over the years has found that the two have a lot of similarities.

I am looking forward to going a few easy miles with Dylan Roche.

Searching For Direction

Growing up Dylan Roche was not athletic at all.

He was not competitive and found that he wasn’t particularly talented at sports.

After completing high school, Dylan attended a local community college.

All of his friends had gone away to college, leaving him feeling lost and without direction.

Dylan felt depressed and frustrated.

After his first day of college classes, Dylan went home, grabbed some old shoes, and went out for a run.

At the time he was out of shape and a bit overweight.

He ran 3 miles that day which was the most he had ever run and it was all fueled by frustration.

Confidence Booster

That initial run gave Dylan a sense of accomplishment and empowerment that he had not experienced before.

From that day forward, he ran every day after classes were over.

Dylan found that he was gaining confidence with every mile that he ran.

That new confidence gave him the push he needed to begin writing a novel he had been planning.

That first day running was 16 years ago and now Dylan can’t imagine a life without running.

He typically starts each day by running anywhere from 12 to 15 miles.

On July 1st of 2021, Dylan will have run every day for the past 9 years.

Stumbling Into Streaking

Running every day for 9 years was not something that Dylan ever set out to do.

Dylan found that he naturally felt better on days when he ran.

That feeling led him to run each and every day.

Before he knew it, years had gone by.

Dylan has been fortunate to never have a significant injury and has a rule to never run through pain.

He usually runs a minimum of 12 miles a day because it’s what works for him and his schedule.

Even with running 12 or more miles daily, it never really feels “easy.”

The fresh air and movement are just what he needs as a writer to get his creativity flowing.

Listen To Your Body and Respect It

Over the years Dylan slowly increased the distance he was able to run.

Gradually increasing both his daily and weekly mileage has allowed him to tackle virtually any challenge he wants without fear of injury.

Dylan has learned that running is about honoring his own goals and what makes him feel happy.

He listens to his body and respects it so that he can continue to run and be active.

There are always things he can improve upon and the feedback from each race or challenge allows him to do just that.

Dylan has run two virtual Yeti challenges but is eager to do an in-person ultra in the near future.

Pursuing Goals One Word At a Time

It has long been a dream of Dylan’s to have a book published.

He wrote his first book while in college which in hindsight turned out to be the easy part.

After a few years and multiple rejections, Dylan finally found someone that was willing to take a chance on him and publish his first book.

“The Purple Bird” was published in 2019 and the genre is young adult fantasy.

Dylan is currently working on multiple books including a sequel to his first one.

He enjoys the writing process and his new books will expand out to include more than only young adult fantasy novels.

Both running and writing have provided much-needed outlets for Dylan over the years.

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Mentioned In This Episode:

• The Purple Bird- Book by: Dylan Roche
• Yeti 24 Hour Challenge
• Atlantic City Marathon
• Baltimore Running Festival

Stay connected with Dylan Roche by checking out his Website and/or following him on Instagram and Twitter.

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Dylan Roche is both an author and a runner. He always knew he would write books, but running came into his life unexpectedly and never left. Click To Tweet

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As Always, I’d Love to Know What Stood Out to You From this Episode! Let Me Know Your Takeaway in the Comments Below!

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