Through My Eyes

By Curtis Caesar John

When I think of what Mid Strike Magazine means to me, I think back to 2013, two years into my journey of taking running seriously as a lifestyle.  I was signed up to do my first marathon, but honestly, with all that intense training, due to an extended lack of support my enthusiasm was beginning to wane.   

What if Mid Strike was around then? If it was, I know that I would have been inspired by reading about  runners who look like me, who talk like me, and who live lifestyles similar to my own… I would have known that Black and non-white running communities are within reach.  

See, I was fortunate that the same week in the early summer of 2013 that my fiancé (now wife) told me about Black Men Run NYC, I literally ran across a few of the brothers running in their main meeting spot of Prospect Park, Brooklyn. That weekend I signed up and never looked back.  I was previously part of the Prospect Park Track Club, but save three members - one being another Black man - I never felt welcome there, hence the beginning of my continued discomforts of the lilywhiteness and dismissiveness of the wider running community. The brotherhood I felt with BMR-NYC was there from day one.