For running! earth on foot 15
27 August 2025
27 August 2025
I threw my right leg out from under the duvet cover last Saturday morning and sighed. It was 5:30AM, and a grey dawn light filled the spare bedroom in Brooklyn where I slept.
My daughter’s apartment was a 20-minute walk from the start of the 5K that I was running that morning. Last year, when I ran the Brooklyn Half, I joined NYCRuns, and I find their emails of upcoming races hard to resist (and the fun t-shirts), especially when it means a visit to my daughter and family.
It was a perfect day—cool, sunny—and I placed sixth in my age range, which I was proud of: I believe New York women my age can run!
Afterward, I eschewed the Häagen-Dazs coffee, vanilla, and chocolate ice cream treats (it was 8AM after all!) and chose a popsicle, then had fun chatting about last year’s Prospect Park 10-miler with someone who also had the shirt. We agreed it had been a great race.
A neighbor of mine, an avid cyclist, has said to me numerous times that if he could, he would much prefer running because it requires no equipment. I always say, “Well, there are shoes, which can be a non-trivial expense, but you’re right—that’s about it.”
My parents were both runners, so I grew up going to races. I never thought I’d participate willingly, but when the kids were young it was a workable way I could do serious exercise. I remember doing yoga with my kids climbing on me. How sweet to remember that!
Now, after 21 years of fairly regular running, I’m not ambitious. I’m in it for the long haul. For the pleasure of being outside. As a way to enjoy a place fully, through all my senses. And a way to explore, to see the unexpected such as street art, a vibrant sunset, dogs playing off leash, families by a pond excited to see turtles.
There are a lot of ingredients involved in why I like to run—and walk—all over the world. And when, in the pre-light of dawn, I struggle to remember why I signed up for a race, I tell myself I’ll be glad I went running. My gratitude is for another day, for all the many gifts of my life, including being a mom, a “Gigi,” a daughter, wife, aunt, sister, friend and more. Not to mention the beauty of trees.