Sneak Preview

One of the many projects I'm currently working on is a piece about runners with interesting jobs. Here's a sneak preview of one of those profiles. Mind you, this is RAW (meaning it's yet to be edited), so be nice if you're going to critique!

Father Jorge Fernandez can recall almost every second of the morning of May 2, 2005. He remembers waking up, throwing on his running clothes, and stepping into the cool, spring air to go for a quick five-miler. He remembers being approached by a group of teenagers. He remembers falling to the dusty ground and getting kicked hard in the head.

He remembers waking up in the hospital, his body—fit and taut from nearly three decades as a runner—bruised and aching from his injuries. A broken nose. A cracked rib. A smashed jaw. A punctured lung. Gaping wounds in his forehead. Enough trauma to keep him locked in intensive care for nine straight days.

One thing Ferndandez doesn’t recall about that morning was dealing with thoughts or doubt and despair. That’s because he didn’t have any. True to his vocation, Fernandez, a Colombian-born member of the Yarumal Missionaries and a parochial vicar at Our Saviour Parish in the Bronx, is a man of deep faith. He thrives on positive thinking and the power of prayer. He willed himself to recover. He received solidarity and strength in the prayers and thoughts of thousands.

“I received so much support from the people of New York. Because of that, I was able to heal quickly,” says the 42-year-old Fernandez. “It helped, too, that I was in such good shape. That was the first time I’d ever been admitted to a hospital for more than one day in my life.”

Today, the only visible reminders that remain of the attack are two boomerang-shaped scars on his forehead and a slight bump on the bridge of his nose. Fernandez has returned to running—up to 70 miles a week—and racing (he completed the adidas Race for the Parks 4 Miler in 21:24). Next, he’s gunning to run the 2006 ING New York City Marathon in 2:45, although he concurs that it’s difficult squeezing in races that fall on his busiest day of the week.

“Many races, including the marathon, are on Sundays, when I have mass. But if I know that the mass will be at 11 or 12, I go to the race, I run very fast, and I come back to the church,” he says, explaining that last year, he was able to run eight NYRR races. “It works out. I just try to always be in good shape and ready to race.”

One of 14 children, Fernandez started running in 1979, enjoying a successful amateur career that took him as far as the Andes Mountains to race. Later, he ran amongst buffalo, elephants, and even lions in the semi-desert of northern Kenya, where he lived as a missionary among the Samburu tribe and became known as “God’s Runner.” And in 2001, he was assigned to be the vicar of Our Saviour in New York—where, of course, he continues to run while overseeing the parish of more than 350 families as well as serving as chairman of Yarumal Missioners, the first foreign mission society founded in Latin America.

“Yes, My job is demanding, but running gives my life balance" says Fernandez, “It keeps me in good shape, gives me an open mind, and makes me ready for anything.”