As runners, most of us have been injured at some point. Unfortunately, it tends to come with the territory. Training for races and running on concrete often leads to tired joints and muscles that need to be stretched, rested, strengthened, and well-fueled. If we don’t find the right alchemy for our particular body at that particular moment, we wind up injured.
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There seems to be a running boom and news outlets are reporting that running clubs are the new alternative to dating apps. Our past PPTC couples have met through dating apps and through the club. This holds true for our couples featured this year, so if you’re looking for love and tired of apps, maybe it’s time you check out a PPTC group run. In the meantime, read about some of our PPTC couples and how they met.
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We learn of each other, laugh together, cheer each other on, and as the days and months pass by we may recognize that we’ve found love among this community of runners. Today we celebrate that love and remember that no matter what the world throws at us, we have each other.
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Given my mind’s historical bent (it runs in my family), I had other questions about the Cherry Tree 10-miler. Mainly, I wanted to know: why host a ten-mile race in February, of all months? Answering this question led to many other questions.
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As a team, we can work towards our goals by holding each other accountable and encouraging one another. You all got this and we got all of you!
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In the midst of this dry spell, fires ripped through the tristate area. From October 2024 to mid-November 2024 there were 860 wildfires across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. New York City had 270 brush fires in November alone, which is a historical record. The larger fires in Inwood Hill Park, Van Cortlandt Park, and Prospect Park were particularly devastating.
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It wasn’t Monday, but we donned our medals for portraits at Der Pioneer following the Friday morning SEC run. Here are some of our 2024 New York City Marathoners and a little bit about what they had to say about their races.
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In a city known for its marathon and its fashion, let’s take a look at what PPTC wore this season at the New York City Marathon.
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Throughout this year’s month of April, we collected poems from PPTC members that discuss both life and running. They are composed in a variety of structures, but each possess beauty and wisdom.
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Last Monday, the 128th Boston Marathon was held. With most of the participants gaining entry by meeting time qualifications and time cut-offs, the race probably has the fastest average finishing times. But this is not a call for speed in that way. My call for speed is for everyone to do a little bit of speedwork, even if, like me, you are not even remotely close to finishing a marathon under a Boston Marathon qualifying time.
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Each element the club offers is thanks to a collection of people offering their time and work freely. It’s astounding. PPTC, a running club of over 2,000 members, operates (fairly) smoothly thanks to volunteers. A system built this way should be defunct, but yet it’s operable.
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My goal is to be able to maintain my usual base pace with a much lower heart rate. Maybe the result will be faster times in races, but my real reason is that I don’t want to ask my heart to work so hard.
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Happy Black History Month! PPTC held its second annual Black History Month Run on Saturday, February 3, 2024. Like last year, it was also a no-drop run, with pacers available so that no runner would be left behind. This was apropos, since Black History Month is about being inclusive of all people, by celebrating the contributions of people of the African diaspora to the United States.
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I also garnered a new definition of love thanks to bell hooks’ reflection on an M. Scott Peck quote, “Love as ‘the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.’” If you find this to be true as I did, you can certainly apply this to running and general movement. I think for many, running is a part of spirituality.
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My book is about those hidden costs and the psychic and social effects of those costs. My hope is that by having an honest conversation about some of these pressures, we can confront some of the things that are really stigmatized in our society, like mental illness, things that we internalize as failures, and we can begin to talk about trauma in a more compassionate way that enables us to deal with it.
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I wanted to reconnect to running. I had joined cross country in middle school and had been pretty casual about running. I always knew I liked something about it, the time to myself, the ability to be present, the opportunity to have a clear mind, maybe. I was never the fastest runner, and I knew that, but running was always something I could do for myself.
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