The Long Run
I’ve been running a lot lately. Earlier today I published a story about some of that running, and how intimidating running felt to me a couple of years ago when, amidst several major life upheavals, I decided to run the NYC Marathon. Out of my running came the WSR’s Guide to UWS Running Clubs. But that’s not the whole story.
In 2022, when I was starting the process of getting divorced, becoming an empty-nester, moving house and leaving a full-time job, I committed to running the NYC Marathon. To my friends and family it seemed an odd choice. I’d never run a race in my life. I’d been a two-to-three-mile recreational runner for ages, but I’d always thought 26.2 miles was bananas. I still do.
Back then, I didn’t know a tempo run from a progression run. I’d never heard of a fartlek, and I couldn’t convert kilometers to miles. But I did run the NYC Marathon. And it was a disaster.
I’d trained alone, and poorly. I didn’t properly hydrate during the race and I beat myself up afterwards for not meeting a ludicrously ambitious finish-time goal.
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But I kept running. And the people closest to me kept cheering me on. They didn’t see me as weak because of that initial flop. They saw me as strong, which I was. I found a running group I liked and made some new friends that aren’t so new anymore. I learned about fartleks, though I still don’t run them. I improved.
Last December I ran my third marathon, this one in California, and I ran it fast enough to qualify for next year’s prestigious Boston Marathon. There’s some esoteric terminology in the world of running, and one acronym that carries particular reverence is the “BQ” — the Boston Marathon Qualifying Time. Boston’s the hardest marathon to get into because of its demanding qualifying standards. Unlike New York and other races, which allow runners to enter via a lottery or general registration, as a charity fundraiser or after running enough smaller races, Boston largely requires proof of speed and grit and performance. For the most part, Boston aspirants must’ve run a recent qualifying marathon in a dauntingly fast time to earn a spot on the starting line.
I’ll be on that starting line in Boston this April. But before then I’ll be on Staten Island to start my 3rd TCS NYC Marathon this November 3rd. I’ve got nothing left to prove, so I’ll just be soaking up the energy and joy and vibe and love that permeate a city on a marathon Sunday. Come out to watch and cheer and have the best, most inspiring day of your life. As my family’s favorite coach, Chris Bennett of Nike Run Club, says: “Be a part of it, not apart from it.”
As for running clubs, though I belong to one, I still do the vast majority of my runs alone. I write during runs; I think during runs; I listen to music or coaching or the sounds of the city or nature. I watch the world. In the last few years I’ve started running with friends too; some from my pre-running life, but most of which I’ve made from running with groups. These friendships didn’t happen right away, but I stuck with it, like I did with running.
With my quixotic quest for a BQ behind me, I’ll be retiring from running marathons next year, after Boston and one last NYC Marathon. I still don’t fully understand what drove me to run marathons at this level. I know this though: there are moments that test us, and moments when we test ourselves a little, to see what we can bear, what we can handle, whether we can keep moving forward.
Perhaps I needed to figure out where I was in a difficult moment and take some control over it. Whatever stirred me to run marathons, it seems to be passing. I don’t feel a need to run them anymore. But I’ll keep running, eyes forward, taking myself to new places, for as long as I possibly can. I’ve got lots of miles ahead.
