(Franklin, TN ) Seth Oden, age 64, says he's never met a stranger. Seth loves to run and invites everyone he meets to join him.
K-LOVE's Monika Kelly had a chance to sit down with one of the most popular people in Franklin, Seth Oden.
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Monika Kelly: My guest today is Seth Oden, known as the "Running Mayor of Franklin. It's so good to have you, Seth.
Seth Oden: Thank you for the invite.
Monika Kelly: You are loved by many people in the area and you've inspired hundreds of people to do something you love to do, which is run. I'm curious, how did you get started running?
Seth Oden: I got started when my son was actually in about the fifth grade. I used to jog just a little before I had kids. And then, you know, after you have kids and life kind of changes. I got off the running path, but in the fifth grade he wanted to play sports, and in order to play sports, he had to be able to run a mile. I started back with him and got him up to a mile. We initially started, I was only up to a quarter of a mile, so I got him up to a mile. I forgot how long it took, but once he got up to a mile, he said, 'I'm done, dad, that that's all I need is a mile.'
I started noticing how much better I felt, how much more energy I had, how much better I was sleeping. So I just kept at it. I went from there to two miles to three miles and just worked my way from there.
Monika Kelly: You have this way of engaging people and inviting them to join you in running. What has happened over the years?
Seth Oden: What's happened is that anybody I meet, if you have any inkling or exercise or whatever. There is a phenomenon out there that running groups are all like expert supervised runners, but that's not the case. We just a social group who basically like to run. So if you run, walk, however you want to do it, it'll be somebody there with you. We leave, you know, nobody behind. So yeah, we have a group, but everybody's not runners. Some, you know, walk and by engaging all levels and inviting people, that makes it more social, and of course that makes people feel at ease. The hardest part is getting someone to actually come out for the first time and join in, but after the first time, most of 'em will continue to come back. Or even if some of 'em don't live in town, every time they passing through or their company sends them here, they'll still come out and join us for a run or a walk.
Monika Kelly: I love that. You don't have to be an expert runner, right?
Seth Oden: You don't even have to be a runner. All you gotta do is be able to move. However you get through. If you wanna do, uh, two miles or two minutes, we there for you.
Monika Kelly: That's so great. You had a pretty significant accident in 2022. Tell us about what happened.
Seth Oden: In 2020, I kind of got into more cycling because, you know, of COVID and shutting gyms and everything down. So I got more into cycling and at the time I even had to wait for my bicycle to come in because of the supply chain and all. But once my bike came in, I just started riding leisurely, not like endurance riding, anything like that. So in April of 2022, I just went out for leisurely Sunday bike ride after church.
Most athletes that have a fitness watch on, so I'd actually just looked down at my fitness watch to see what speed and what distance I was at. And when I did, I accidentally stuck my handlebars on my bicycle to the left, and (hit the) edge between the sidewalk and the grass, so my bike tire fell in that trench. And before I could get it out, I actually hit a curb and then that threw me over the handlebars of my bicycle, which messed up my spinal cord and broke my neck.
The spinal cord would normally have enough room to move and not be a serious injury, but apparently I had arthritis that I never knew about in my neck. So the doctors explained to me I didn't actually have very much room, so that's why my I had the concussion that I had. I was actually not able to move probably for about three to four weeks, and then some movement started coming back in.
Monika Kelly: Pretty significant. (Watch the story here).
Seth Oden: Yes. A significant accident. And I'm thankful and grateful for the technologies and all the doctors and therapists that's able to do what they can actually do now, because I went through I would say the best, I can't say for all of 'em, but I went to a rehab place in Atlanta that had a lot of really high tech technology to help me rehab.
Monika Kelly: And you're a man of faith.
Seth Oden: Yes.
Monika Kelly: How did God walk you through that time? How did your church family come alongside of you?
Seth Oden: Well, of course I go to a smaller church, not like a mega church. Everybody basically knows everybody. My pastor is actually Cory House, and I go to the church, Connection Hill in Thompson Station, Tennessee. I had actually gotten to the trauma center and they came to see me at some point. I wanna say it was right after surgery or whatever. And then from that point, my wife was manning me and my son was manning my phone so that they were reading me the text messages and everything coming in from, from every, you know, everyone. And, I never was like fearful. When even I was laying on the side of the road not able to move. I thought I had like, you know, football players to get a stinger and I thought it was like 24-48 hour paralysis. I never knew it was a serious as it was until I got to the, you know, trauma center.
Monika Kelly: So you were literally paralyzed.
Seth Oden: Yes. From the shoulders down. That's amazing.
Monika Kelly: So not only did your church family and our regular family come alongside of you and were there for you, but also the running community.
Seth Oden: The running community gathered around me greatly. (I think her name was) Sharon, I had asked her to just let 'em know we have a Facebook group, so you know, she got everybody and put it on the Facebook group. All the messages was also coming in from my church family, my family, and my running community as well. So a lot of text messages I couldn't actually see. But you know, they were being, you know, read to me and even they had sent out for prayer requests.
I'd had one doctor at the Vanderbilt Medical Center that came into the room and when he picked up my chart, he said, 'Before we get down to business, I just want to let you know that I never met you,' (he's an endurance person as well) he said, 'On my Facebook group that sent out for Brentwood endurance team to actually pray, you know, for the runner that had gotten injured. So I've never met you, but just to let you know, I've already prayed for you.'
That was, you know, really heartfelt right there. So he was just a doctor, ER doctor at the time coming in to read my charts.
Monika Kelly: That's amazing. That's so beautiful.
There was a documentary film made about your life, Seth, called Seth: The Running Mayor of Franklin. It was extremely moving and hopeful and what struck me about you is that no matter where runners fall in their experience level, you would come to the back of the line, and you would make sure that you kept them company.
What hit me about that is it just reminded me of Jesus, like no matter where we are on our path, He's right there walking with us.
People call you the "Running Mayor of Franklin." Why do they call you that?
Seth Oden: It kind of got started as no matter where I'm at, there's always people who know who I am, and I mean, I could be in the city of Franklin, Nashville, Indiana, Ohio...I've been in all kinds of places, and people that's around me, people walk up, 'Hey Seth, how are you doing?' I've even had a buddy who said he was standing in the street in Nevada and they said something about Franklin, Tennessee, and the first thing you heard say to, you know, do you know Seth? So it's just like a lot of people apparently know my name, and I'm pretty good with names and faces as well, so I can recall a lot of names and faces.
Monika Kelly: What struck me about you is that you make people feel seen and heard, and that you don't require them to be at a certain place to be friends with you or to associate with you.
Seth Oden: That's true. I mean I welcome basically anybody who will respond. I've never really met a stranger. I just talk to who's ever there. I try to meet people where they are. I make 'em feel welcome. It doesn't really matter. You know, what phase you in life you're in right now, what stage of fitness you in. If you actually interested, you know, join in and we'll get there together.
Monika Kelly: That's great. When you look back and you think about everything, how has Franklin the community and the running community come alongside of you?
Seth Oden: Actually, Monika, they've kinda always really been there beside me when I initially started running in probably about 2003. I think it was somewhere in that timeframe, I joined a small running group and you know, we would just go out for runs, but I kind of got bored with doing the same path just over and over and over. So sometimes I would go and sometimes I would just strike out on my own and go other places. Whenever I wasn't there, there were others within the group who wanted to know, 'where were you at?'
I said, 'I was here.'
They kind of said, 'Well, you mind if we go with you?' I just invited anybody who wanted to.
The thing about fitness, especially running and walking, if you talk, you kind of disassociate that you're actually doing exercise.
You just carrying on a conversation. You just talk about whatever's going on with you that day. And when I had my accident, I mean, my winter group put meal trains together for my family. They arranged for yard work to be done at my house while I was recuperating. So my family didn't have to do any of that. They did GoFundMe for whoever wanted to donate.
I had so much mail and everything coming in the rehab center. The mail carriers thought I was some kind of celebrity or something because there was letters and cards and socks and gifts and presents coming in on a regular basis.
Monika Kelly: Such a reminder of the goodness of people. I think that your kindness obviously started that. Maybe it's so rare these days that people are just, they're drawn to that.
Obviously you're so special to so many people.
Seth Oden: Thank you. I mean, I don't quite see it that way. Like I say, I'm just myself. I don't expect anything from anybody. It's just that I don't look at people any different. I mean, everybody is basically, you know, the same to me.
I've even met people, we couldn't even speak the same language, but we can get enough with the hand gestures and everything to know exactly, you know, what we're trying to do, what we're trying to recall.
Monika Kelly: Where can people find you on Facebook?
Seth Oden: Franklin Roadrunners, it'll be our group page. I'm actually there, and then of course it's just Seth Oden on Facebook. I hadn't got into the Instagram and stuff. A lot of the younger people just call me the OG. I'm a ambassador for the Lululemon store. I was actually at like a convention of Lululemon people and most of 'em of course are a lot younger and they wanted to know what my IG was and I don't even know what they were talking about. So they got teasing me about that.
Monika Kelly: Thank you so much for coming out here today.
Seth Oden: Well thank you so much for in inviting me, Monika. I love it and I was actually totally surprised when I got an email from a radio station that wanted to come and wanted me to interview, so thank you.