For the past seven years, rain or sunshine, deep freeze or heatwave, Chemistry Teacher Jonathan Moody has not missed a day of running. After developing a passion for running in middle school, Dr. Moody went on to compete in cross country and track and field as a high schooler. Since then, he has continued to run almost every day, even after starting his career as a teacher. He gets to campus at 6:00 a.m. and goes for a run. Then he showers and goes to class to teach first period.
“I just kept running,” Dr. Moody said. “When I got the job at Ursuline teaching chemistry, I asked if I could help out as a volunteer assistant for cross country, and they said sure.”
Dr. Moody has since transitioned to the school, teaching chemistry and coaching middle school cross country – something that he enjoys deeply. His passion for running had not ebbed, leading to double runs during the school days with early mornings and hot afternoon practices. Throughout most of this time, Dr. Moody had only taken occasional days off due to extreme circumstances.
“I had a surgery in December of 2017 where I had a benign lump taken out of my neck,” Dr. Moody said. “I couldn’t run for five days after that surgery. When I started back running, I had this idea that I would need a compelling injury or health reason not to run after that, and I haven’t had one since.”
The surgery cost him the use of a small set of muscles on the back of his left shoulder when a nerve was accidentally cut during the surgery, but that hasn’t stopped him from running. Thunderstorms, freezes, and even Pecos have not been able to stop Dr. Moody from forming some of his fonder memories running along the shadows of the mountainous landscape at Pecos and running to a hardware store to buy a part to fix a burst pipe during a previous snowstorm.
“Some of my fondest running memories in those seven years haven’t been runs where I’ve just been running to keep the streak alive,” said Dr. Moody. “It’s been running with athletes that I’ve coached or in places like Pecos.”
