Runner’s World+ Member: Amanda Parmer
Amanda is a Runner’s World+ member. Join her and thousands of others chasing their goals with day-by-day training plans, expert advice from editors and coaches, and unlimited digital access. We regularly feature members online and in print.
In college I smoked a lot and needed to quit—my roommate suggested running. True to the tropes of art school running was abnormal at RISD. And, in part because of this, running opened up unexpected experiences and a sense of self-determination. My first NYC Marathon was in 2006 and my only goal was to run the whole race without walking. To my surprise family and friends were of mixed and polarized reaction when I finished. It felt like a throw-back to Jock Semple’s sad attempts to push Kathy Switzer out of the Boston Marathon in 1967 and Arnie Briggs and Thomas Miller’s work to keep her in.
That bundle of embrace and antagonism has stayed with me over the past two decades mulling over running’s fantasy of self-sovereignty that I still lean on to strengthen me mentally and physically. Watching women’s running today I am seeing that attacks on Caster Semenya’s right to run the Women’s 800 are working to dispossess this self-sovereignty from one of the most ambitious runners. This pivotal year is teaching me about the necessary community of running and responsibility we each have to each other to maintain and hold it open for one another.
Coach Jess! Her great vibes and bi-weekly workouts are a bellwether moving through 2020 and beyond. The diversity she calls in makes it possible to feel good about being a part of running communities rather than the secret runner I used to be.
Running affirms my self-sovereignty. I think of Katherine Switzer and I think of how grateful I am to move in her wake. I think of Caster Semenya and I think of how far we have to go.
Definitely a toss-up between the elation of running Manhattan’s East River bridges and the groundedness that comes with any run in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
Vain as it is, I think it’s the breadth of my Agassi-inspired running wardrobe that keeps me coming back.
After college I bought a student train pass and traveled in big and small cities and towns in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain for six months. It was before GPS cell phones so I’d tear a new city map out of my guidebook with each stop and go for a run to see what the vibe was like in different neighborhoods and how I might want to spend my days there. It’s still my favorite way to orient myself when I travel.
Keep running.
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