Story by Jessie Zapo as told to Simon Freeman. Illustration by Jessie Zapo. From LtW#33
Being in New York City, I am surrounded by many different running communities. Because New York is undoubtedly a running city. And over the past two years – through all the lockdowns and quarantines – I saw a lot of folks pick up running on their own. There definitely was a surge in the number of new runners – people who wouldn’t normally have called themselves a “runner” were coming outside. It was kind of clear who had never run before: they were wearing hiking shoes and down vests and all kinds of really funny outfits… which made me happy, because it reminded me of how I dressed when I first started running.
For so many people running was a way of coping with the pandemic. A way to cope with isolation. That is especially true here, in a city where people live on top of each other in close quarters. At the start of the pandemic, I think a lot of people were using running as a mental health tool. But they were running solo at that time. Groups were afraid of getting together and there was a lot of pressure, obviously, to maintain social distance.
What I saw during the first part of 2021 – as spring came around – was that people still weren’t comfortable to be running in groups. Of course some of the bigger groups were slowly getting folks back out. But I think that it took a full year after the height of the restrictions for people to start to feel comfortable and safe coming together.
That is why I feel like this is the summer of running. It feels like this spring and into the summer, I’ve seen every group, every brand, every person re-energised by getting together and training or racing. Some of the races that have been on hold for several years – such as the Midnight Half – returned. And they returned with more production, more energy, more spectators, more participants, more press and photography. More than that, I think running is just ramping up towards this fall marathon season.
Of course the picture has been mixed. I’ve also seen runners coming back to running who maybe took time off. Sort of the old-school folks. Some of them felt uninspired to run. It was interesting, because I think during Covid-19, people went in different directions.
I saw a lot of my friends who had been very serious about running just totally stop. People responded to this traumatic experience in their own way. Thankfully, now, a bunch of those folks have come back out and started running again and are talking about their journey of coming back to running. There are people who are coming back to groups. And there are brands who are restarting the clubs or groups that we haven’t had for several years.
The other thing I have observed is how running became a form of protest and that perhaps this year it feels a bit less about that, although here in New York we definitely saw social activism really take off and I think we’re still seeing it.
Throughout the past couple of years it has felt like there is just a lot of tension in general. There definitely was around the election here. People were spending a lot of time on social media which connected them with a lot of thoughts and feelings. And taking to the streets became really important. But more recently, I think, as things have settled down a little bit in terms of some of the turmoil with the presidency – although we’re still in a weird place right now – along with the opening up of outdoor spaces and people being able to experience being around each other again, things have become a little less tense and a little more hopeful.
The funny thing is, I remember at the beginning of the summer last year, people were saying: “Oh, this is going to be a hot girl summer, because we’re allowed back outside, and people are gonna be partying and they’re gonna go out and do everything.” And then that didn’t really happen, actually, because I think people were just a little bit overwhelmed.
Now, a year later, it really feels more like the summer that maybe people wanted last year: which is feeling more free, feeling less fearful. And being able to do things for fun and be a little bit carefree.
One example of “the summer of running” is what is happening at McCarren Park track, where I coach several groups. On any given morning or night, several different groups will be enjoying track workouts at the same time. So we will share the track with groups such as Brooklyn Track Club, Tracksmith, Brooklyn Running Company, (prepping people for Brooklyn mile), Bandit and GoldFinger Track Club… to name just a few. There’s been so much camaraderie, with runners cheering each other on, despite the fact we’re doing separate workouts. It’s broken down the walls so there’s less “this is my club and that’s your club”.
Generally I haven’t felt this kind of energy here since maybe 2014. It just feels like how it felt at the time when running was really, really fun. This is definitely a summer of running.