Still Training—22 Days Until Media Mile, 52 Days Until Princeton 5K, and Maybe Paris, Rome, and Berlin in 2025

This was a rough two weeks. I felt down because I’m likely not going to do the Dopey, and, if I do, I will find out at the last minute. Whether or not it happens feels entirely out of my control. I didn’t want to give up on running, but without a goal, I was uninspired. I did keep running, so that felt good. Running has become a habit and that is truly a miracle, as I am not exaggerating when I say I am not a natural or efficient runner.

Then, all of a sudden, over the last few days, I realized that what I want to do is run challenging, but not impossible, distances, such as a half marathon, and do it in places that I want to visit (Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rome, Warsaw, Glasgow, Jerusalem, Vienna, Salzburg, and, of course, places that I’ve lived, including San Francisco, Cape Ann and Brooklyn).

I cried about this shift because I did feel like I was giving up a big goal, but, on the other hand, I got very excited about traveling to different places with others who want to run these races. In fact, there are companies that arrange these trips for you, including getting the bib, finding a hotel, and, basically hosting you in these cities, and that kind of trip is everything that makes a vacation for me: a lot of movement and virtually no thinking or planning.

Of course, Runner’s World, where I work, is a big help. In fact, I have assigned and edited a few half-marathon stories.

Before, I start that training, though, I am going to run the Media Mile down Upper Fifth Avenue and the Princeton 5k in Jasna Polana. Then it’s time to start training for a half, which I may run in Europe or Cape Ann—maybe both!

For me, the real challenge is that I’m going to show up for these events. I have been known to back out at the last minute due to fear. So, showing up will be a win.