The run for his life

It's just a shame when The Running Man has to run for his life, but it happened again.

Keith Boissiere is the name of a man who hails from Trinidad and Tobago and has settled in Baltimore, seeking the best life.  Some say he has found it. He runs on the average 20 miles a day through the streets of Baltimore - he has 15 different routes - and he does this to ward off physical infirmity and find mental peace.

He reads voraciously, and he believes in not only taking care of his mind, but his body as well.

''Fitness of the body, fitness of the mind, and understanding and learning what the whole world is about,'' is his mantra.

So. He lives alone, needs very little except some new sneakers every few months, and hassles no one as he scoots around downtown. He waves to people as he goes along. He has neither a phone nor a computer, but he does have Stage 4 Chronic Kidney Disease and is on the list for a kidney donor.

Hence the running. Doctors told him that physical exercise would be salubrious and he followed that advice.

So, for no good reason other than to do the devil's bidding, someone decided to attack Boissiere last week, leaving the 66-year-old bruised and beaten.

“He didn’t have a stick at first, but he punched me and knocked me down, and then he went and picked up a stick somewhere on the side of the road and started beating me with it,” Boissiere said according to WJZ.

Two valiant women came along in a car to interrupt the attack, and give The Running Man a car ride to safety.

“Two girls in a car stopped and told me real quick to jump in, and so I jumped in their car and that’s what saved me because he was going to finish me off,” Boissiere said.

He has been attacked before while running, but he won't let that slow him down. The “Running Man” Facebook page had this to say: “This doesn’t make any sense, Baltimore. Attacked again and just for being liked and loved by so many.”

“I was upset because he doesn’t bother anybody, and for some guy to jump on the guy just running down the street at his age is just bad,” an area resident said.

Keith Boissiere has a great attitude about his running, making the run its own goal: "When you’re competing you’re trying to impress people, I have nobody to impress but myself."

He impresses everyone by trying to impress no one.  More should learn from him!