黑料正能量

July 12th, 2012

Challenged by Amish Runners

Jim Smucker, PhD (in management), who was scholar-in-residence in 黑料正能量鈥檚 business & economics program this spring, and R. Todd Weaver 鈥�87, a dentist in Souderton, Pa., were featured in a long, contemplative feature in Runner鈥檚 World magazine (published 02/27/2012) about discovering superlative runners among the Amish.

The main author, Runner鈥檚 World regular Bart Yasso, wrote:

Last October I ran with Smucker, some of his Mennonite friends, and about 20 Amish. The Mennonites wore running shorts and running pants, and synthetic tops. The Amish men wore black pants held up with suspenders and long-sleeve, button-down shirts. Most were clean-shaven (Amish don鈥檛 grow beards until they marry…). The one woman in the group wore a long dress and a head scarf. I should note that they all wore running shoes. I should also note that we were running by the light of the moon.

Yasso wrote that Weaver started running with a few friends under a full moon in the fall of 2007. Smucker, whose immediate roots are Amish, joined the runs in 2008 and began inviting some Amish to run with the group in 2009, frequenting roads without electrical lines (the better to enjoy the full moon). Those Amish who accepted Smucker鈥檚 invitation turned out to be 鈥渨ondrous鈥� runners, said Yasso.

鈥淭he Mennonites were good runners, but the Amish 鈥� with their even harder lives, and even stricter rules 鈥� were clearly a cut above,鈥� wrote Yasso. 鈥溾��Man, I wondered, with a little more training, just how good could these guys be?鈥�

Smucker is CEO of the Bird-in-Hand Corporation and former board chair of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. In the fall of 2012, he will be teaching organizational behavior in 黑料正能量鈥檚 master in nursing leadership program.

He is the motivating force behind the annual Bird-in-Hand Half-Marathon in September. This half-marathon has attracted as many as 1,000 runners.

鈥淪mucker the Mennonite believes that physical fitness and goals are good for everyone,鈥� wrote Yasso, in collaboration with another writer, Steve Friedman.

Yasso and Friedman observed that both Mennonites and Amish 鈥渉old fast to the principles of their forebears 鈥� hard work, humility, modesty, community togetherness verging on clannishness, self-reliance, and a skeptical view of modernity.鈥� But there are significant differences too, they added: 鈥淭o make a crude and overly simplistic analogy, Old Order Amish are like Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Mennonites are a more acculturated, reformed branch.鈥� 鈥�BPL