“There comes a point in an athlete’s life where we wonder if our commitment, discipline, and dedication has become a delusional pursuit of something that was not meant for us. I know that sometimes Steph wonders that about herself, about how many times she can be so close to the dream that she can nearly touch it before she should find a new dream. And yes, even though after each race she debriefs us in a way that leaves us all hopeful and inspired the heart does break with each disappointment.” - Tianna Madison in the Foreword of Follow Your Heart
When I announced 2022 would be my final year of racing, Coach Ben Rosario presented me with an idea. He wanted to chronicle the final 12 weeks of my career—sharing anecdotes from my life inside and outside of running, and giving readers an intimate look into my life, culminating at the NYC Marathon. Goodbye Marathon we called it. Per usual I was hooked. Ben blew me away by his elegant writing style and way with words. We had a vision and a plan. And of course the engine behind us was Jen, editing and copying and doing all the BTS work that no one sees and rarely gets credit for. We met each week for those 10-12 weeks, I would narrate, he would ask the questions, and he would record and transcribe. There would be no editing, no filter. Whatever mood I was in, however many times I said “like in a sentence, that’s in there. It was slightly terrifying and very cathartic to divulge everything going through my mind those last few months of the training cycle. I was nailing workouts, juggling the family’s schedules, but I was on top of all the little things in my running. I loved every minute of practice with my teammates because I was thinking these were my last. There’s so much that took place over those 12 weeks I didn’t know how we could possibly tell the whole story. I think we got pretty dang close.
Then I made the decision I wasn’t done yet. This would not be my final season. I would not be retiring. Did I ruin the entire premise of the book? Did I waste both of our time? After an honest and uncomfortable conversation between Coach Ben and I, which I’ll tell you is a healthy sign of a great relationship and friendship that I believe we have built over the years, we knew we could pivot.
The beautiful part is so much of the story didn’t change. I was playing out those last few months of training and racing as if they were my last. It’s what I had felt in my heart 10 month ago when I announced my retirement. But the thing is, life happens when you’re busy making other plans. It the simplest of explanations I had a change of heart. So fittingly we arrived at a new title, Follow Your Heart. In my best estimation there is no other way to live life. There you have it. The backstory to how Ben Rosario and I collaborated to write our first book together. I hope you find some of yourself in it. I hope you see more of who I am in it. Of how our team trains. Of what makes NAZ Elite a force, our coaching staff, our support. I hope you see the time and effort my coaches invest in me and all of us. I hope you see how I could never do any of this without my family, my support, my believers, my haters (because you gotta have some right), and my unexplained unrivaled belief in myself. As Coach Ben wrote “ I learned that Steph Bruce doesn’t make decisions with her head. She follows her heart. And it’s all worked out pretty damn well so far.”
-Steph Bruce