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Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: Trinity Life

Media Credit: Erik Skoglund OFF TO A RUNNING START: Students get off on the right foot by running with Dean Tuttle in the mornings. Begun last year during New Student Orientation, "Running with the Dean" has quickly become a tradition.

If you are out and about before 8 a.m. on Wednesdays, you've probably seen them run by you. It's the pounding of feet on pavement, the companionship and a love for running that draws them together. They are the ones who "Run with the Dean."
Sophomore Elise Goen joined the running pack of over a dozen people last year during orientation week.
"I guess it's just fun because it's another opportunity to meet people, and we all get to know the Dean pretty well," Goen said. "There's some sort of bonding you get from running together at 7:30 a.m. with no sleep."
According to Goen, with sleep, running gets you energized, but without sleep, you are a little bit more numb.
"I've done running as something more relaxing," Goen said. "It makes me feel like I've been active in the day. You just know that it's coming. It kind of breaks up the middle of the week, and it's a good mid-week check-up. Not that we talk that much."
On the way, Dean of Students David Tuttle asks everyone how classes are going and what is coming up in the week. His group's list serve lists 20 people, but group size is usually six to 12 people. "Running with the Dean" began during New Student Orientation last year because exercise slots were open, and then it continued throughout the year.
"As a dean of students, you should try to meet as many students as you can in as many settings," Tuttle, who has run four marathons, said. "This was another way to try to do that, and it connects with my own interests."
Goen's parents were excited that Trinity is small enough that students can go running with the Dean, Goen said, adding that she had never heard of another university where the dean gets up early in the morning to run with students. Three to four students she met last year still go on the hour-long runs.
"It's all kind of in the neighborhoods, so it's nice to get off campus," Goen said.
The runners sometimes stop at a water fountain by one of the houses, which belongs to someone affiliated with the university, said First Year Shelley Ramsey. Alumni, the Reverend Stephen Nickle and Rick Roberts, director of the University Advancement Office of Major gifts, join the group occasionally as well.

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