Missing the Bronx

Every year since 2013 I have run the New York Road Runners 10 Mile Race in the Bronx. I love this race. It is right in the heart of marathon training, so I typically do really well in it because the distance is almost effortless at this point. It’s a relatively flat course with the perfect mixture of some small rolling hills that seem to help more than they hurt. The September weather has been perfect the last four years, a little crisp but warm enough that my muscles loosen quickly. Last year they made a small change to the course that somehow made it better — a quarter mile downhill right into a finish line that sits beneath the shadow of Yankee Stadium, which as a Yankee fan was a nice little thrill.

Unfortunately, this year will not be my fifth year and its for reasons that may not make sense to everyone. Running is supposed to be my escape from all of the darkness of the world. It is also meant to be my path to enlightenment, so this year, specifically since November 8, 2016, I have been dealing with the tumult of politics in this Country and the World and the need to find a way to react to it. I have never been that polarized when it comes to politics. I leaned left, but I appreciated both sides of any argument or approach. But this time it felt different because it lingered. The result of last November and everything that has occurred since then has pushed me firmly left of Gandhi.

I may offend some people here but back in November 2016 the sadness I felt over the Presidential Election was not a matter of policies or parties but a reaction to someone who operated in the world of fear, hate and ignorance. It was the realization that so many people identified with it, whether it was conscious approval or subconscious consent. I know some people won’t agree with that and will argue that the new administration was a beacon of hope because of the change they promised. But the message was never actual change, it was grounded in reverting to the past — “making things great again.” Running helped me let go of my past and some of my regrets because most people understand that the past can be toxic when you believe that you somehow can restore it. In this case, the frightening part was that it was not difficult to see the hate that embedded into that message. They can call it nationalism or frighteningly “populist”, but in the end, the objective truth was the image of klan members celebrating the day after the election. I only have a limited description for that — racism and bigotry.

I think a lot of people have been searching for answers. I have voiced my anger in a lot of different ways, making donations, going to protests and not being shy with people in my life who defend some of the things that have happened since the election. Running has always been therapeutic for me but its meant that much more this year. Especially when I show up at races and see every race, gender, religion and sexual orientation. And we aren’t just present together, runners are shoulder to shoulder, and we share everything, sweat, tears, pain, laughter, and smiles.

So this past November when New Balance, the title sponsor of the New York Road Runner’s Bronx 10 Miler Race, decided to support the new President, I was pissed. I had hoped politics wouldn’t encroach on running. I had hoped that the purity of the sport would prevail on anyone involved from doing something that would endanger that purity. The explanation was that New Balance was not endorsing any of the hate rhetoric that went along with the administration, just singling out the potential positive economic impact of the opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The words that followed were the repudiation of any bigotry or racism, which was fine. However, later it was reported that the New Balance founder personally contributed close to $400,000 to the campaign. Also, the TPP justification was a little disingenuous by the time of the election came around because TPP had become a moot point — neither candidate was supporting it by the time we voted. Even the Obama administration had acknowledged it would pursue to TPP despite the fact that it supported it. Since then, the silence has been deafening. Through the immigration bans, the transgender discrimination, the DACA repeal and the veiled support of white nationalist rallies, New Balance has stayed silent. That bothers me today.

Maybe the economic explanation was enough for some people. Maybe the idea of a limited endorsement of just an economic issue was a sufficient reason for ignoring everything else. Maybe silence was the best possible solution. But I am stuck. I am annoyed that New Balance let this invade this world that was so pure. I am angry that come November there will be a level hypocrisy at the New York City Marathon when the New Balance logo is all over the clothes and banners. The silence will seem that much more vile in light of the thousands of people who will travel here from all over the world to run through the streets of my City. My City, that has always been a beacon of hope and the real American dream of welcoming everyone, including people like my parents.

I am not a politician or an activist. I am a 36-year-old middle-class white male who was born and raised in Queens, New York. Among the many things I can do to show my anger, one the biggest forms of protest for private corporate retailers is for someone like me is to 1) avoid purchasing their products (done) and 2) make it clear to people within my circle why they shouldn’t buy New Balance products. The other thing I can do, which is small in this battle, is not participating in this race because it bears New Balance’s name in the title. Despite my love for the Bronx and New York Road Runners, I find it offensive that New Balance can show up in the Bronx as a title sponsor without a sincere apology or at least the indication of remorse or regret for what it said last November in light of everything we have seen since then.

The Bronx is the epitome of New York diversity. If New Balance thought it was necessary to involve itself in politics back in November for economic reasons, then maybe it isn’t too much to ask for some strong words condemning the President’s indifference to what happened in Charlottesville or any of the other litany of things that are an anathema to what runners stand for, which is inclusion. People may call me foolish, but in light of everything that is happening, I think I need to be a little irrational. My hope is that if there are enough versions of me being irrationally angry then maybe this can elicit a simple apology or a signal of regret. Perhaps New York Road Runners can find the courage to replace New Balance in 2018 to reflect the sentiment of the community that it is supposed to represent.