A Coach, Mentor, and Friend

The morning of his passing I went to the track to take this photo to honor him.

Two months into this pandemic close down of 2020 and what else could go on? My last blog was about passion. Well, for over 45 years my first passion was running. The man instrumental with instilling that within me and hundreds of others was Lanny Conner. I grew up in what was a premier football town and if you weren’t a football player you were sort of an outsider. Well, Lanny created a family and a culture where ever he went. He taught us so much more than just how to run. We learned how to handle disappointment and success. We learned what it meant to give your all for not just yourself but for the others around you. We were family and to this day, all of us who are Lanny’s guys still are. I probably grew more as a runner and did my best running after high school. All due to what he gave to me. About 10 years after high school I had the opportunity to join Lanny as a member of the Bloomsburg University X-Country team. It was an honor to be part of that. He took a program that was pretty much trash and built it into a success. For years he was part of the running community in Berwick and the NE Pa region. One of the fun parts of going back to Berwick for the race every Thanksgiving was seeing Lanny. He could tell you every time of every race you ran. You could sit and talk running or just talk about family. When I first was dealing with my achilles injury I could have said that was enough. I had been running for over 40 years and had a lot of great times and great memories. What Lanny instilled in me wouldn’t let me do that. When I started photography I took it on like Lanny taught us how to take on running and life. Photography has pretty much taken over top spot for me compared to running but I love my time out on the open roads. This time off from what I would be doing has allowed me to enjoy and appreciate those miles even more. There are certain people who will compliment me on my work and it will mean the world to me. Over the last few years he would message me about my work. It meant a lot to hear him talk about what I was doing. After decades we are all still trying to make him proud of us. It’s been a little over 2 months of not doing what I want and should be doing. I don’t even want to do a count of all the games and shows I would have shot in those 8 weeks. What this time has given me is time to set goals to work to what I am going to do once we can. That’s what Lanny taught us. For the first time in years I have running goals. I want to test myself again. On the roads and on the track. I’m taking steps to take on my photography bucket list. He made sure we were prepared for every race and everything that presented a challenge to us. Our losing him is just another challenge he would expect us to take head on and move forward. He had such an influence on so many and everyone of us will pass that part of him on to someone else in many parts of life besides running. We will be getting together in a couple of weeks to share a run over the Run for the Diamonds course to honor his life. I know he will be with us. He will always be with us. Thank you for everything, Lanny