First Track Tuesday of August

Era of……..WTF……..joy and resistance

It's August. Five more months until this year is over. First of all, I'm not sure what happened to summer. Halloween candy has been out since July — who are the psychopaths buying Halloween candy in July? Plus, back in mid-June, social media was already advertising back-to-school stuff. That's the first vomit.

The other vomit is ICE and the continuation of kidnapping people. Recently, they've been targeting faculty members, nuns, and other Black and brown people who are out here doing service work — good work. And now the latest move is denying HBCU students access to early voting. Voting early, or just voting at all, is being denied and resisted, all to get ready for the November midterms.

Today, in the quiet and cool of the morning, I ran because it's Track Tuesday — getting ready for the Mob Mile next Thursday. We ran 7x400s. My track math says a mile and a half is 4 times around for a mile, so we did almost two. Look at the pace for the 400s: 2:07. Shit. My job as pacer is to hold that 2:07 pace.

We had a big team today. Before we left the house, I made sure to pop my anti-inflammatory pills, put on my knee/pain ointment, and eat to have good fuel in my body.

My joy, my happy, is arriving at the MIT track and seeing all the runners — my heartbreak runners, Coach Dan, and the pace team. The energy, the spirit, is comforting. We have fun, we smile, we make jokes, and we keep each other motivated. That's the goal: to get the task done, our way. Our bodies, our choice.

Today was an off day. I could feel it — everyone in my group was feeling off. We took that collective energy and used it to move from off to on. The beauty is that it went fast. We finished 7 laps by 7:35 a.m. Always winning.

This was my happy of the day. This is what fuels my spirit to keep moving, to keep doing the work that's needed to keep fighting for justice.