Taking $20k from a racist city
If you want the world to change, you have to change it yourself
I really didn’t feel like writing anything last week. So I didn’t. Instead, I spent time with my family. I met up with friends most nights. More often than I normally would. I surrounded myself with the best people I could. I even went for a run.
With my British friends, we talked about how much worse it could get in America, especially as we expect they’ll re-escalate in Los Angeles soon. We talked about whether we were going to stay. Whether we could afford the tens of thousands it would cost to ditch our friends in the mud. It’s much easier to say, “Just leave then,” than actually do it, of course.
Instead, I’ll focus on economic protest, I thought. My eldest had developed a rumbling cough but Target is on the Shit List, so I got a bottle of kids’ Robitussin from the pharmacy at the bottom of my street. That caused a glow of satisfaction. Shop local? I did! However, it was 40% more expensive than it would have been at the place that’s devoid of DEI. Hmph.
Sam Robinson of Footnotes posted this fantastic piece today about how it feels to just be carrying on with our daily lives while this country is invaded by its own government, and how much worse it could get.
Dollar Voting with your Feet
Something you can do when you see those regressive forces is organize your community in a way that you’re not funding them directly.
ICE (in this current masked guise of poorly-trained/hastily-deputized vigilantes) has been ever-present in California for 12 months. It’s why I profiled Aaron Garcia of Keep Runnin’ Santa Ana a year ago. A huge race for his crew is the Surf City Half-Marathon in Huntington Beach, which brazenly declared itself a “non-sanctuary city.”
KRSA runners had already signed up for the 2025 race. They’d trained for the race. The feeling of their money directly lining those pathetic pockets was sickening. The response? Never again.
This past weekend, 160 KRSA runners ran a free race that Garcia organized at the same time as Surf City Half, taking at least $20,000 in race fees away from Huntington Beach, and that’s not including all the other expenses in the city like travel, accommodation, food, and drink.
“I believe in voting with your dollar. Where you spend your money matters. Santa Ana is 77% Latino. I wanted to provide an alternative for my team who wants to run a race and not have to support cities that don’t support us back or even want us there. I wanted everyone to feel welcome at our half time trial.” Aaron Garcia, Keep Runnin’ Santa Ana
We need more leaders leading like that.
Libraries FTW
One of my all-time favorite institutions is the library. It’s an essential public resource that the US actually gets very correct. As a child, I spent many, many weekends at Ilford Central Library. I entered the book review competitions every school holiday. They gave us book tokens as prizes for reviewing 10, 20, 30 books. I bought Roald Dahl books, which I now re-read with my eldest son, 30+ years later. It’s pretty cool.
That’s why I was overjoyed that the New York Public Library has ordered This is Running. I love it. It made me so, so happy. It fucking rules.
I would also love it if your library ordered a copy, so please go to your local library’s website, and request it. That’s all it takes! Here’s the information they might want.
Author: Raziq Rauf
Title: This is Running
Publisher: Batsford
ISBN: 1837330425
One of the other things I did last week was join the LA chapter of the Burrito League. I had a brisk walk back and forth along Sunset Blvd with my friends Gordon Clark and Adam Copeland, a founder of Tantrums, who was the main organizer of this global jaunt. The month-long escapade was based on the Strava x Chipotle challenge that is found on p.184 of my book
Please pre-order it, by the way. Some of you have. Most of you haven’t. (Yet?) You buying it from Amazon is sadly the best way of ensuring I have a long-term career as an author. The corporate tendrils of bookselling.
USA - Amazon US | Bookshop US | Barnes & Noble
UK - Amazon UK | Bookshop UK | Waterstones
Yes, I’m running again. Long-time readers may have been following the malaise of my poor heels, but we’re back up. Very gently.
It was a strange juxtaposition to how I felt about the news, but when I run, I feel like I can do anything. Unloading the dishwasher is easy. I eat more healthily. I start planning vacations. I think about who I want to take those vacations with. The freedom that tunning affords me dictates my whole life. Anyway…
T is for tendons.
It’s a new year, but it’s an old injury. I’ve been plagued by my right Achilles tendon for months now, and it’s still causing me pain every time I restart my rehab exercises. Ugh.
The Achilles tendon acts like a spring for runners. It’s the connection between your calf muscles and the bones in your feet. It’s the crux of the corporeal slingshot that absorbs and expels 10x your body weight every time you crunch your body into the ground. As a runner, without my Achilles, I am dust.
It’s extra annoying because I was in the best shape of my life before I got injured – probably the reason I thought it would be ok to try playing soccer as a 42-year-old man (with a severe emphasis on ‘old man’).
Soft tissue injuries often come from a single event of extreme exertion, and that’s exactly what that game was. I don’t often (read: never) perform twists and sprints and other explosive movements like a last-minute shot at goal during my five-mile neighborhood run. My body is still reeling from the shock.
What that fills me with the most dread is that I know from experience how long a damaged tendon can take to heal. In my late 20s I suffered calcific tendinitis in a brachial bicep tendon. It was the kind of painful that made it difficult to turn a steering wheel, and when I asked my doctor how long it would take to be pain-free, he replied immediately with, “Nine months.”
He was correct almost to the day, which is a reminder that there are no shortcuts. That means that I will continue being patient and good. No running, and lots of plyometric strengthening exercises while I watch TV.
How can you not end up like me?
Don’t try to play soccer, even if your DNA is wrapped up in that sport
Warm up your calves before running with dynamic stretches
Stretch (and strengthen) your calves thoroughly after running
Cross-train with low-impact activities to reduce stress
Add plyometrics to your routine to condition your tendons
Work on your single-leg balance to strengthen your ankles
Take more rest days!
Luckily, this isn’t my first injury rodeo. I’ve been out of action before (metatarsal stress fracture, torn hip flexor, general knee malaise, spinal inflammation), and I will return, and sooner than I think. I’ve just got to remember that.
I’ll be writing this A to Z of running throughout 2026, so if you have suggestions or requests for me to write about something, submit your ideas through this form, and I’ll add them to my list.
Podcast appearances
I was on the Second Nature podcast with Aaron Lutze, talking about how to write a book about running. You can listen to that here.
It was also lovely to chat with Adam Lee for the Community Trail Running podcast. We’ve been chatting on here and off here for the past three years. Great guy, great podcast. Listen to that here.
Remember to pre-order my book. All info and direct purchase links can be found here:
Thanks for reading
Raz x
Hey Raz, I just submitted a request at my local library. Looking forward to reading your book. 😀
Got my pre-order in. Thanks also for sharing the story about the race - it's nice to read stories on-the-ground (no pun intended) from people who are taking their communities into their own hands.