First Track Tuesday of September 2025
Era of WTF…..joy and resistance
Monday was Labor day, today is Tuesday, and tomorrow start’s the first day of classes. Bye August, hello September. I was crazed this weekend with all the emotions of getting ready for back to school. I knew this would be the last “ downtime weekend”. The start of school starts my “ season”. Besides my mood of trying to get things together and not knowing what to do. Crazy, I know. Especially after 20 years of doing this. I just had to let it all go, knowing it will be alright and I needed to relax and calm my ass down.
My joy came on Monday for the 10th annual birthday Diva Dash. It’s a 9 mile run from Neoponst esplanade to Dudley circle and back. My co-ambassador KB started this when she was 40 to celebrate her birthday. It’s a vibe. Her nephews DJ, she has all the snacks, yellow shots, mimosa’s, and there is a dance party after we are done. Oh and she has a fitness trainer warm us up and we limbo across the butterfly finish line. This year for her 50th, ms. KB is in Sydney Australia to run the Sydney Marathon and receive her 7th start.
Even though she was 10,000 miles and 14 hours away, we still did her race. Did I mention, it normally starts at 6a.m. on Labor day. People have gotten up early to run this race, celebrate her and be in community.
I didn’t run this year because my knee was feeling wobbly( more on that in a bit). When I showed up at 6:45a.m, there was already a team setting everything up. I helped a bit, participated in the warm up, and went live on FB, so she could see everything. It was fun.
It was good to wait and chat with the folks that were not running. I forgot how fun it is to see the runners coming through to the finish line. Afterward I went to Boston Commons downtown for the Labor Day parade and protest.
Tuesday, Track Tuesday. I knew to pop my anti-inflammatory meds, rub the knee down with Ben Gay and I was ready to go.
This is the time of year when all the college and grad school kids come back to Boston. The quiet of the city starts to get louder. Louder with traffic, people, and all the spaces inbetween.
Driving to MIT track at 5:30 in the morning, it was still dark, cool, and a bit of traffic was slowing me down.
On deck today were the power 800s. 6x800s with 90 secs in between. The last 200s of the 800s were were suppose to kick it in gear to a 1mile pace. The rest of the 800s was at a 10k pace.
Well, I made it to the 4th 800 before my wobbly knee said no more. I also may not have hydrated and eat right. I was tried and felt like I did not have energy. The struggle is always real. I did pace well. Yeah me.
Team Read- Meg and Jill, kept the pace for me, for the last 2 rounds of 800s. I made sure to run , wobble across the field as they ran on the track to remind them of the pace and encourage them to keep it up. I was being a pacer- coach.
I made sure to do the last 200 with my team. I wobbled and did it. I appreciate the support and the group energy to keep things going. The workout was a 5k. I did 2 miles. No complaints.
Side note: There was a young lady that joined us, who is running the New York Marathon. She had no clue about what to do, where to go, how to get to the start line. Bus or by ferry. We had 3 ladies who ran the New York Marathon and were shocked by her “ whatever, I’ll figure it out” attitude. LOL. Hilarious.
