To Live and Run in The Bronx
means crossing the same finish line as others when your start line is in last place.
The Bronx is ranked the unhealthiest of all of the counties in New York.
So, to add the hashtag NOT62 to a social media post means that how you move your body in this urban space is a billboard message of sorts to everyone’s gaze.
A billboard that may read:
You got this!
You can keep your body in movement too!
These days, your routine run through the Northwest Bronx neighborhoods sometimes include people cheering you on with your favorite phrase to hear: You got this!
Sometimes these runs also include unsolicited comments about your body, its curves, and its love handles.
Sometimes these runs also include younger children screaming from their windows.
Sometimes these runs through the only part of the world that has had you reside in it and allow you to witness all that makes up this urban landscape which leads to The Bronx being ranked last.
You see the pollution caused by heavily trafficked residential neighborhoods.
You see the pollution caused by trash still not picked up by the City.
You see the pollution caused by people driving through this borough and dumping in it.
As a lifelong runner, life has lifed in the past half decade and made you realize the necessity to sustain movement. The privilege it is to have a body that is able to be in movement.
Dominicans always kid around about how the slightest mention of lack of energy or an ailment makes their mothers instantly claim:
Eso es Anemia— That is Anemia.
In your case, your mother was right. She raised you in a way that included remedies, sautéed liver meals and doses of molasses to boost your iron. Your aging body heightened the shedding of blood and has made your iron levels to be inconsistent and drop.
In the past three years, you decided to include running races as part of your adulting.
This decision led to a whirlwind of race events that three years later have medals in your living room that include your running of 5Ks, 10Ks, Half marathons, an Iron Man and marathons. You have met so many amazing people in the running community at large.
One of your mantras has become: I run so many miles for others I might as well sign up to run even longer distances for myself.
You have learned so much about your body. You became running coach certified to learn even more about the science behind running. You have learned about having grace for your body. You have learned about honoring your own journey and running your own race.
You also have learned in the past year how strong you can be for yourself both mentally and physically. Your body requires you to train differently than most others. While a high volume of miles does good for your body to create a strong base, in your case you have to maintain lower volume because of the time it takes for your body to recover from the distances you run. It has shown you how to never underestimate the invisibility of an anemic runner. These distances should not be covered by a body like yours so every time you have completed one it truly has amazed your heart.
As an anemic runner your body requires your mindset to be different. Your focus for your body is on completing the distance and not the speed at which it is done. Which is to say as an anemic runner you won’t hyper focus on beating the time of your last race. This is not a popular mindset to have around people who can only measure success as a runner by how fast you can go.
This mindset has excluded you from special training runs exclusively designed for people who run to beat a time and you have been told ‘run not just for fun’.
You’ve worked mentally hard on dismissing that last phrase or the notion that how a runner like you is perceived by some as a runner who is not as ‘dedicated’ or ‘disciplined’ because their pace is labeled ‘party pace’ or ‘sexy pace’. You’ve worked diligently on creating boundaries and not continuing friendships with people who don’t honor your humanity.
For a runner like you in The Bronx, the cake is what you’re after which is completing the race. It means you’ve reached the start line and completed the course by crossing that finish line. If you reached a personal best measured by numbers then that is a cherry on top.
How come?
Running long distances for an anemic runner makes you feel like at times you are going to die. The last words sound like hyperbole; however, this is what you feel like when the oxygen needed to keep a certain pace doesn’t make it to your lungs. The lack of iron in your blood means that there aren’t as many red blood cells carrying oxygen to your lungs. This affects every organ and especially your heart.
Your heart rate spiked to 199 in your last race. It was daunting. You knew why it was happening and consoled your body through a lower heart rate.
Usually, this happens a number of ways: open palm on chest and the other on your tummy to focus on our heartbeat and breathing, stretching your fingers to alleviate them from the swelling or dousing ice cold water on your neck and chest.
For a runner like you in The Bronx, whether running a training run or a race means that you a running 100% in tune with your body and the thoughts that also run in your mind.
Every long distance race requires a focus on your body to get it through all of the signals your body is sending your brain.
You are grateful for the act of transcending most of the time during those long distance runs. An epiphany occurred in the half you completed two weeks ago.
Certainly, another one will happen at tomorrow’s race.
It’s your first time running the Women’s half.
You know the route, Central Park, very well. Your mind will recall the times you’ve looped it with your daughters while riding bikes. Your mind will take you to the moment you cheered women in this same race by playing the güira. Your mind will focus on the Lamaze like breathing patterns you’ll have to do at certain points. Your mind will celebrate every mile completed. You’ll try your best to run up Harlem Hill. You’re also okay if you have to simply walk it up. There is a finish line waiting for you. One that you know represents more than just the completion of this race.
It represents the realization that after all of those 13.1 miles, certainly,
YOU GOT THIS!