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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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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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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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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You may have seen the words "Join Discord!" flying around for the last couple years. You are once again faced with the cheery beckoning of the instruction-to join Discord. We’re here to break down discord for anyone new to the platform or who gets cold feet when thinking about posting.
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We have the last ice age to blame—or thank, if yours is a generous spirit—for the hills of Brooklyn. Through the Pleistocene Epoch, continental ice sheets expanded and retreated dozens of times, carrying and smoothing rocks and eventually depositing them miles from where they had been picked up. The Laurentide ice sheet, which covered much of Canada and the northern United States, reached its greatest extent in the most recent glacial period about 20,000 years ago. Its southernmost boundary crossed Brooklyn.
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Tuesday, July 18, 2023 marks the beginning of 2023’s Marathon Training Group (MTG). Coached by John Honerkamp and free to PPTC members, the group prepares you for success in distance running.
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Last year, Crystal became club president, the first Asian American to hold the position, and the fourth woman to serve as PPTC president. Since her inauguration, Crystal has led the club with kindness, thoughtfulness, and strength.
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So, today on this eve of Valentine’s Day, we would like to thank you all for the love and community. PPTC, these past few years have been made easier by knowing each of you. To express their gratitude, PPTC members have written notes to their PPTC running buddies commemorating the familial, platonic love that composes our club’s fabric.
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Yes, you heard that right. It’s a blog about the PPTC blog. This blog post gives you a behind the scenes look at the blog team and will answer some frequently asked questions in an interview format. Enjoy!
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“Listen,” she said, “you’re a marathon runner, you’ll bounce back.”
I laughed. “I used to be. I could never do that now.”
“No, no, no. You’re a marathon runner and you always will be, even if there’s a time that you can no longer walk.”
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Feeling the soreness and fatigue, I again reminded myself of all the training and fuel I gave myself and that this could be my only chance at BQing (qualifying for Boston!
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