Heads turned as cheering came from the fields after school, but no sports games were scheduled. Rather, English teachers Clare MacKenzie and Dan Sussman were being cheered on by fall athletes, who were shocked to see their teachers jogging around the MFS fields.
On Wednesday September 22, 2021 MacKenzie and Sussman went out for a jog around the campus. It was an irregular occurrence for student athletes to see faculty running around the fields during their practice. MacKenzie explained, “we are both former cross country coaches and we were recently bemoaning the lack of running in our lives.”
She continued on by saying, “the only way for me to actually exercise is to do it with someone else, so we decided we are going to use the time after school to run and get back into shape.”
Athletes were surprised to see their English teachers out for a run. Field hockey captain Kendall Borbi said, “It was so nice to see some of the English department of Moorestown Friends take a jog on such a beautiful day. They maintained a solid time and we were happy to cheer them on as they went.”
MacKenzie and Sussman completed two laps around all of the fields and didn’t take a rest until they reached the end.
This was MacKenzie’s first run in six years, and she said, “we are now active as well in mind as in body.”
Sussman hadn’t run much since quarantine and he noted that, “it feels like a good mindset shift to be running again. I typically aimed for a personal record or to get as fit as can be. Now I want to exercise to live longer and enjoy life.”
The run sparked an idea in the Worship Planning Committee, a “Meeting for Running.” As Co-Clerk and MFWFB Clerk Lily Buchdahl said, “we were inspired by the teachers running and thought that others might want to join during the day. It is the perfect way to combine exercise and worship into the school day.” She continued, “it will be optional for students and faculty, but we [worship planning] hope for a good turnout if we do it!”
MacKenzie and Sussman maintained a steady pace and left MFS Field Hockey player Ava Carlson with one question, “will the rest of the English Department join in, and where is Deb Galler?”
Galler, another English teacher, responded to the question of whether she would be joining Sussman and MacKenzie by stating, “absolutely not. I only run if someone is chasing me. [I am] not a fan of running. I don’t [run]… [I’m] just not a runner.”
Despite these strong feelings against running, Galler does wake up in the wee hours of the morning to workout in her house: “I have an online group and we Zoom while we workout. This has been going on long before the pandemic.”
MacKenzie and Sussman plan on continuing these runs throughout the fall season. As MacKenzie said, “those books don’t lift themselves!”
