father began to run. Enough time has
elapsed that Brooks-Rubin is comfortable
saying that he wasn’t sure how much to
expect of his dad’s bid for fi tness.
“I didn’t expect it to be something that
he would really focus on so much,” Brooks-
Rubin said. At the least, it wasn’t something
that he expected his dad to be talking about
in a magazine article 30 years later.
But Rubin came to enjoy running,
much to his own surprise. Th e pounds
came off , and the fi rst time he was able to
run the whole 4.5 miles around his devel-
opment without stopping was a day that
he cherishes still. His successes didn’t
move Gail much — she was a tennis
player, and quite happy with that — but
With grandsons Eliav and Adiv after a meet in
Maryland Courtesy of Brad Brooks-Rubin
it did catch the eye of Brooks-Rubin. In
his 20s, he decided to join Rubin for a few
runs and was “left in the dust,” he said, by
his surprisingly speedy father.
It motivated Brooks-Rubin, who even-
tually ran three marathons. Today, he and
his father still share a connection through
running and competition; when Rubin
comes to down the D.C. area to run or
play basketball, he looks to Brooks-Rubin
and two grandsons for encouragement.
“It’s pretty cool for them to see their
granddad competing,” Brooks-Rubin said
of his sons, Eliav and Adiv. He also sees
his father’s running as helpful to him
aft er the mother’s death in 2017.
See Movin’, Page 30
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MAY 6, 2021
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