This week I‘m in New York for the NYC marathon. I really love being in New York. It’s my second time there in 2025, and my fourth overall, but I imagine marathon weekend will make this my most intense experience.
I’ve been using the wonderful Marathon Weekend website to try and plan my schedule because there is so much more going on in New York than there ever is in Los Angeles. The LA Marathon is not a major, of course.
I read this very good piece on NBC yesterday. Written by a tech journalist who caught the running bug over the past couple of years (welcome, Ben). Abbott has been instrumental in fueling the current running boom and this is a thorough dive with good historical context into the madness around collecting the Majors.
How many major marathon medals have you collected?
First Timers with Laura and Lydia
My main reason for being in NY is a storytelling event that I’ve been graciously invited to be a part of by Laura Green and Lydia Keating (mentioned here in the Marathon Talk podcast with Deena Kastor). I am frantically trying to learn a ten-minute monologue for the event. Off by heart. It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine haha.
I’m also planning on meeting up with a whole bunch of other cool people whole I'm in NYC. You’ll be able to read those conversations through the end of this year, and maybe beyond, depending on how many of them I am able to pin down.
The only other public gathering that I can guarantee you’ll find me at is at FancyFree in Brooklyn on Saturday morning as Arsenal play Burnley. Come hang out?
If you’re around the city, drop me a line and if you're running, tell me your bib number and I'll try and yell at you. Reply to this email, write a fresh one to raz@runningsucks101.com, DM me on Instagram or send me a message through the Substack mobile app. They all get to me. Yes, terminally online. That’s me.
What events do you want to see around marathons?
One thing I’ve noticed during my planning of this trip is the somewhat homogenous nature of all the brand activations. There’s pizza or pastries, you say? Coffee or beer? I could collect a marathon’s worth of shakeout runs every day.
I’ve personally never quite understood the point of joining a huge shakeout run with dozens, hundreds of other people. I know that in terms of million-dollar marketing, the more people the better, but what’s in it for you, the runner? A free snack? You’re worth more than that, surely.
The day before this enormous race that you’ve spent months, maybe years, training for, is it really that wise to pummel your nerves in a big crowd situation? I know that I would end up running that shakeout faster than I wanted to by getting swept up in the fervor. I prefer peace and quiet most of the time, but especially before running a massive race.
With that said, these weeks are supposed to be a celebration of a momentous event in thousands of runners’ lives, so there’s got to be something!
What kind of events and brand activations would you like to see around marathons?
Previously on Running Sucks
Last week I featured a new abuse reporting tool created by Berlin’s Outrun the Patriarchy. It will be very interesting to see how many run club leaders will bring this into play considering how easy it is to implement and how many runners have voiced their desire to have it in place. Will community leaders listen to their community?
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Lydia Oldham’s 300-mile run from London to Cornwall in aid of the Mastectomy Tattooing Alliance. It’s a great story from a great person who found running just five years ago in the most unorthodox fashion, and has firmly established herself as one of the good ones.
When I asked Lydia about the part of running that she dislikes the most, she was very self aware in her critique.
“I have a love-hate relationship because I love that running is so popular, but I also don’t like that it’s being capitalized on at the moment. I feel like big brands are taking advantage of that, and some content creators… I don’t feel like they come from a genuine place in the running scene. It’s hard to fight through a lot of noise to find what I want to hear about running.”
“I actually find it very, very refreshing here in Ericeira because the run club here is big, and we train quite a lot together, but everyone is so random. We have young people, surfers, parents, old people, but nobody wears anything that matches. In London, it’s like a fashion show. Here nobody cares, and there’s something so nice about that.”
Running Sucks Haiku of the Week
I’ll walk more steps, and
run some miles, but mainly I’ll
just eat… less pizza
I really did spend my last trip to New York eating and drinking my way around the city. It’s something that I can recommend, and it’s so easy to do there, and while I want to try to take a healthier approach to my tourism this time, my heart reminds me that the number one way to immerse yourself in a city’s culture is through its food.
With that said, if you’ve got any hot recommendations, let me know! What are your favorite spots? I eat and drink… anything and everything.
Housekeeping
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Thanks for reading
Raz x
Hey Raz
You should make some time to check out Orchard Street Runner’s Prototype Race on Saturday night. Unsanctioned half through Manhattan from one of the OG unsanctioned racing crews with a very different flavour to the myriad of brand activations happening across marathon weekend.
I'm with you on the shakeout runs, but at least we're giving away a pretty nice corduroy cap, among other things. Look, I proposed to Laura that we need to do a running influencer's roast– an airing of the grievances– at a local theater. She said she'd be down, we just need to find other people who are willing to sit through insults while on stage in front of a bunch of strangers.