In his sophomore year, Dillon Salvin endured months of debilitating Long COVID sickness. Those eight months of MRIs, lab tests, and hospital visits not only ended his first marathon training block but threatened to end his dream of running a marathon at all. He no longer asked, “How many miles should I run today?” Instead, the question was, “What’s the shortest walk to my class?” When he would walk up the stairs to his dorm, he had to stop to catch his breath after each flight. Running became a memory.

After a cardiac MRI on his birthday, Dillon attended a Brown Running Club (BRC) underclassmen team bonding event. The group made friendship bracelets and bantered silly nicknames, inside jokes, and superlatives to spell out on their bracelets. On Dillon’s turn, one of his teammates suggested putting, “can’t break this ❤ ️,” a tribute to resilience and determination — a promise to overcome life’s most difficult curveballs. Since, Dillon has taken off the bracelet twice: once to take the MCAT, and a last time to tape it to the bib from his first successful marathon.

can’t break this heart is a running film about practice and endurance. Studying to become a doctor and training for a marathon are arduous processes. Adopting the habits required to succeed in either is a serious endeavor in itself, let alone doing both. Between the early morning long runs and late nights at the lab, Dillon stays grounded with his community. He relies on his training partners, coaches, friends, and family not only as a source of support but also as a source of strength. No individual accomplishment is as rewarding as when you get to share it with the people who supported you along the way. Dillon carries those people with him every day in those four magic words around his wrist.

This film is as much about Dillon and his community as it is because of them. Before making this film, I watched Dillon grind every day, as a teammate and a friend. And as I was making this film, I watched how our teammates came together not only to support Dillon in his training, but also me in my documenting. This film and its story would not exist without community.