Lawrence Gilliam Coming in Hot….

I’d like to start this interview with a story. Lawrence was one of those guys I’ve noticed on social media over the past year, a very good/solid brother that has a tremendous amount of fun while running. It’s funny when and where you’ll meet some folks (we’ll get to that later in this story). Lawrence is consistent and the miles during training reflects that, the finish times as well. Fast forward to Atlanta for the annual The Race, a family reunion of black and brown runners. I was fortunate to run this past year and for those that know this half marathon IT’S VERY UNFORGIVING, hills, hills, lots of rolling hills and a final hill between miles 12 and 13. I ran this year without the pace group with the goal of simply staying ahead of the pace group sub 1:44 was the goal BUT the Atlanta humidity had other plans. That pace was solid until you guessed it mile 12. 

Here’s where it gets kind of cool, I was fading fast. It's 8am. It's humid, the air is heavy and there was no one around but out of the blue I hear footsteps. Now as a runner you don't want to look over your shoulder, so you keep trucking unfortunately I peeked and heard the words on your right “coming in hot” its Lawrence. We chop it up for a half mile, the runner’s introduction, suddenly, I look down at my Garmin and I see 7:10 mile 12 (WHOA). Lawrence was literally coming in hot, I backed off in preparation for “The hill” but from that half mile I knew this brother was solid and I knew I wanted to get him into Mid Strike at some point so here we are spotlighting this cool brother as we get a chance to discuss his run journey and most of all his inspiration.

MSM: Brother Lawrence, welcome to Mid Strike Magazine. I’ve met you while running but for our readers let’s get a brief introduction into who you are.