When do you start calling yourself a runner?
Is it the main part of your life? Who deserves to call themselves a runner? And lets run together in NYC!
It’s a question that arose during my conversation with Dora Atim earlier this year. Dora talked about boxing with people who ran 5 miles every single day. They still started sentences with, “I’m not a runner, but…”
It’s because they identified as being a boxer. The sport they’d chosen was boxing. Even though 25-30 miles a week is a very healthy mileage for an intermediate/enthusiast runner, the thing that they’d chosen for their personality was boxing.
Was there a moment that you started thinking of yourself as a Runner? Do you also run every day and not think of yourself as a runner? Tell me about your journey to classifying yourself as a runner (or not!) in a comment, message, or simply reply to this email. I love to hear from you.
Speaking of weekly mileage, the solo runners for The Speed Project set off on their journey in the middle of last night. Normally, it’s a 340-mile relay race with 6-10 people across the desert, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, but this group is running the whole distance on their own.
Last year, I spoke to one man who ran TSP: SOLO, and just about lived to tell the tale. A year later, and Brooks is finally running again, which is good, but also a big reminder about what these people put their bodies through.
I interviewed Nils Arend just over a year ago. He’s the mastermind behind the unsanctioned, somewhat exclusive race that now has multiple franchises, including a race through the desolate, dangerous Atacama Desert in Chile, a cycling component, an option to run to Vegas from Salt Lake, and a European edition running through France. More to come? It’s always a possibility.
Last week on Running Sucks
Thursday’s long-read about what Dora is doing with Ultra Black Running to add a little equity to trail running was warmly received. If the trails are being celebrated as the fastest growing sport in the world, we should build them properly.
With people like Candice Burt creating some of America’s most coveted multi-day point-to-point ultras, and Bethan Taylor-Swaine working with UK race organizers to make their events more welcoming, the good work is being done. Support for this work is essential, because everyone deserves to be able to call themselves a runner.
Last year on Running Sucks
I’ve been running my whole adult life, and spend hours every week writing about running. Clearly, I’m a runner, but I’m also a writer, a father, a gardener, etc etc. I have a full life, and running is just one large, time-consuming part of it. I love telling stories from that perspective, and this was a great one.
Ben Pobjoy is a creative powerhouse (and a runner), so he took a year of from his rich and full life to run 242 marathons around the world. It was for a world record, of course, but I was so interested to find out how he fitted his quest into life, work, and love.
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Running Sucks Haiku of the Week
Heading to New York
To hang out, run, eat pizza.
Got any good tips?
Next week, I’ll be in New York for a week. It’s my first time there in over a decade, so if you have any tips for where to run, who to run with, what pizza to eat, what non-pizza food to eat, or anything else at all, drop your favorites below or in a message.
The only things in my calendar at the moment are a run with Bridgerunners and the Glue Loop of Prospect Park with Glue Factory Run Club, which looks like fun. Especially if I run a sightseeing half-marathon (I’m currently building the route) around Manhattan beforehand, which you can join me on if you like? All of it, part of it, none of it. Up to you. It would be lovely to meet IRL.
I’ve set up a Running Sucks NYC WhatsApp group, so join that and maybe we’ll hang out.
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Thanks for reading
Raz x
I think I considered myself a runner when I completed my first 10k and posed with my medal proudly around my neck. It felt like an initiation into a club that is enormous and wildly accepting. (At least that’s the vibe in the running community where I live)
Conversations at work usually go like this
“Hey - you’re a Runner, right?” someone will ask me
“I’ve been accused of that” I reply, with 'here we go again,' implied
“Can you coach me to do a 5K?”
“I’m the last person you should ask”
“You run a lot, don’t you?*”
“Yeah, but I’m weird. Running is weird. I would avoid it if I were you”