Live in New York City!
First Timers with Laura Green and Lydia Keating (and Raziq Rauf) is going to be a great show leading up to the NYC Marathon
Talking of First Timers…
On the Wednesday before the New York City Marathon, I’ll be live onstage in Brooklyn as part of Laura Green and Lydia Keating’s First Timers night of storytelling.
If you got a ticket (it sold out extremely quickly), do come say hello, but please do not heckle me hah. Seriously, though, I can’t wait. It’s an absolute privilege to be asked to join these marvelous women. Now to figure out if I can perform live in front of an audience or not. Fingers crossed!
Either way, I’ll be in and around New York that whole week with little agenda, so if you want to meet up for pizza, run somewhere fun, take me to a Broadway show, or whatever other Big Apple delicacies I do not normally get to indulge in, please do get in touch.
Last week on Running Sucks
I had the huge pleasure of picking through visual storyteller Greg Itahara’s creative process in relation to running, and it was fascinating, and quite familiar.
When he explained what he wanted from running that he doesn’t get, it reminded me a lot of what I’ve worked to achieve with my running practice: a quiet place to think through the things that I’m working on.
“It’s difficult to turn my brain off. My brain is continually working creatively. If I’m working on multiple projects, it’s like all these ideas are ping pong balls, and you put them in a bucket and throw the bucket up and all these balls are flying in the air. These ideas are in my head, so I’m grasping at one, trying to see if it fits with this one, like connecting the dots to create the bigger picture.”
“For me to be a creative, I do everything but sit at a computer. I do everything but do something creative to be creative. I have to do something else, and then it just formulates. If not, I’m banging my head on my laptop. That’s why running really triggers all these things. I can’t just be in the moment and run tranquilly, zen-like. Work always infiltrates my brain, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s just how my brain works, but I wish I could turn it off and be in the now.”
He half complained about how the ideas fly through his head during runs, but it’s normal to need a little peace and quiet to truly think about something deeply. I find that happens after the first 3 miles. Until then, I’m thinking about why my shoulder/hip/heel is irritating me, and whatever and whoever is currently annoying me. Once I work through the negatives, my mind starts to clear and I can start to unjumble my thoughts. Hopefully!
Take a read of my profile of Greg Itahara ahead of the Chicago Marathon, for which he’s designed a great pair of socks with Swiftwick.
If you leave a comment on the article about another collaboration Swiftwick can do, you’ll be in with a good chance of winning a $100 gift card.
The Slow Horses 5k
Over in London, two women I interviewed in 2023 were featured pacers for the Slow Horses 5k event, which celebrated running slowly.
I think both Emily Shane and Celina Stephenson have been pivotal influencers in the running boom of the past five years, where the dominant cohort of new runners have been Gen Z women. I’m absolutely certain that the way they’ve documented their gentler way of running has increased inclusivity, accessibility, and visibility, thus inspiring so many other women to start running.
Interview on The Half Marathoner
It was truly an honor to be featured by
in his newsletter, The Half Marathoner. Go and take a read if you want to read more about my running story and beyond.
Running Sucks Haiku of the Week
Piles of shoe boxes
Some adventures with my kids
What more could there be?
My wife’s been away in one form or another for the past three weeks either for work or by being laid up in bed with Covid (yes, get your booster). That has meant a lot of quality time with my boys (I haven’t specified the level of quality…) while I settle into a very cool new writing role.
It would have been easy to let the newsletter lapse in this time, but after an absent August, I realized that writing this newsletter has become a really important part of my life.
Rather than getting in the way of work or family, I’ve found that it’s actually a rather therapeutic companion to it all. My time not writing this twice-weekly missive is always more fraught with anxiety and guilt. Even if I’m sitting down to write this on a Sunday evening while the boys are getting themselves ready for bed, it’s a calming process to go through my thoughts and acknowledge those feelings. It’s the journal part of journalism.
Thanks to all of you for making this a little community that I look forward to being a part of every week. I absolutely love it when you share your thoughts, whether it’s as a comment, email reply, or on Instagram. I love having the conversations and hearing different points of view. It’s great. Time to go read them some bedtime stories and watch another episode of Slow Horses.
Thanks for reading,
Raz x
Housekeeping
MY BOOK - It’s called This is Running and I’ve written about it here. Here are the purchase links if you’ve done enough reading today.
USA - Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop US
UK - Amazon UK | Waterstones | Bookshop UK
Canada - Amazon CA | Indigo | please tell me about any other Canadian bookshop links
BUY ME A COFFEE - If committing to a full subscription is too much, but $5 isn’t, you can send me a tip for this article right here.
SHARE - Send this to a friend and you’ll also make my day. So many ways to make my day.
COMPETITION - The October competition link is up for full subscribers. You can win a $100 Janji gift card once every month of 2025 if you support this newsletter. Upgrade if you want to enter. You can also upgrade by sharing. No purchase necessary!
COMMUNITY - Instagram | Strava | Discord - I opened this Discord almost 2yrs ago, but I think I’m ready to get it going properly now, so pls sign up and introduce yourselves.
Have an amazing time in New York! Gutted to not be there for marathon week this year.