From the Editor

The revamped version of www.hurdlesfirst.com and the newly-created The Hurdle Magazine represent a long-time vision of mine that has finally become a reality. Since the content of the first issue is discussed in the introduction video on the website’s homepage, I want to take this space to thank everyone who helped make it happen.

First I would like to thank my wife Joy, my daughter Sanura, and my stepson Akil for their emotional and hands-on support as together we move through a very significant period of transition in our lives. I want to thank my beautiful mother, my brothers Greg and Glen, and my sister Jo for believing in me and encouraging me to keep pushing forward.

I want to thank two former athletes of mine – Kevin Watson and Hector Cotto – for their contributions to the website, and for the value of their friendship.

I want to thank former athletes of mine such as Allie Johnson, Keni Harrison, Malcolm and Booker Nunley, David Coe, Jordan Myers, Keare Smith, Byron Gibson, and Wayne Davis II for keeping in touch over the years and for the lessons we taught each other when we were together.

I want to thank all of my former students and colleagues who have reached out to me and offered their support.

I want to thank my brother in spirit, Sohale Vu, who has suffered as I have suffered, and has provided me with indispensable friendship in my darkest hours.

I want to thank former student Meghan McAllister for filming the introduction video and the instructional video that appears in the September issue of the magazine. Both would’ve been a disaster without her.

Most importantly, I want to thank Chris Brajer, a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Any venture requires a blending of minds. Anyone with a vision needs others to help him realize that vision. Chris, a former student and athlete of mine, took upon himself the task of redesigning the website this past July. We were having dinner one night when I told him about my idea of creating a hurdling magazine. When I expressed concern that the idea might never get off the ground if I couldn’t find someone to be my tech person to modernize the look of the site, he promised to check into it himself. A few days later, he explained to me what needed to be done, how much it would cost, and affirmed that he could be the one to do it. So without Chris Brajer, www.hurdlesfirst.com would’ve faded into non-existence, and The Hurdle Magazine would’ve never come into existence. Chris is the guy who knows how to do the things I don’t know how to do. And he has an imagination and a determined attitude that I admire. If there’s anything he doesn’t know how to do, his attitude is, “I’ll figure it out.”

I would also like to thank another former student, Will Mueller, who has just recently joined our website staff as our marketing and sales expert.

Finally, I want to thank former athlete Cameron Akers (March 28, 1983 – February 14, 2012), the logo for www.hurdlesfirst.com and The Hurdle Magazine, for being the inspiration for this whole thing, and for teaching me to see what a beautiful person I am. Cam, I miss you forever, I love you forever, and you live through me until I join you on the other side of this existence.

To all of you who have chosen to subscribe to The Hurdle Magazine and thereby become part of our hurdling family, a big thank-you. Without you, we cannot sustain ourselves. Our aim is to give you high-quality content that increases your knowledge, expands your imagination, and fills you with a love for all things hurdle-related.

Take care and be well. Enjoy our inaugural issue.

-Steve McGill, September 2013