Prince Malcolm Jones the First
The man. The myth. The legend.
From our very first jog around the block to the long training miles that felt impossible, Malcolm has been there. He’s grown up at my side, and in a lot of ways, I’ve grown up with him.
He’s been with me through moves, career changes, heartbreaks, and milestones. He’s trained with me for every marathon. He’s curled up beside me in motels after long drives, pawed at my legs when I needed a break, and laid his head in my lap when I didn’t have the strength to stand up.
He came to me from Scenic View Farm in Iowa at the end of June 2020, the peak of the pandemic. For three months he grew up on tall grasses and windy pastures, following his litter mates through 300 acres dotted with elk and Quarter Horses. And then he landed in New Jersey, disoriented from a cross country flight, timid and unsure, he slept curled in my jacket the entire ride home to midtown Manhattan.
He hated the cement. Hated leashes. He was a monster child and for at least a year I was sleepless and exhausted, unsure of what I'd gotten myself into. I'd grown up with 40 German Shepherds and Rottweilers on a 3 acre farm upstate, but none of that prepared me for the whirlwind wrath of raising a 6 month old that is as petulant and vindictive as any human child I've ever met.
But Mal is a cuddler, and we suffered through those sleepless nights together. He is rebellious, but he's also a love, I suppose we have that in common. Slowly we found our footing, and we've been jogging along ever since.
Malcolm doesn’t need words to understand me. He knows when I’m anxious before a race, when I need to slow down, and when I need to keep going. He’s the one who jumps out of bed the second the alarm goes off, the one who never questions the miles, and the one who never lets me run them alone.
He’s more than a dog. He’s my training partner, my co-pilot, my compass, and my comfort. He is the softest part of this journey — the heart at my heel.
If you ever see a shaved head and a lean red dog out on the road, that’s us. That’s the team.
