From Lemons to Glory

Incredibly, it looks like joggling lemons may have improved my joggling. Sometimes the road to glory is paved by ridiculousness. Yesterday, the day after joggling lemons for a few miles, I managed to break my previous record and joggled for 23.3 miles without dropping my juggling balls even once.  Still, this is my longest interrupted(both running and juggling interrupted) run without drops, not my longest uninterrupted(continuous non-stop running and non-stop juggling) run without drops – that is still 15 miles. Without stops(of juggling or running), or with stops(due to traffic, quick bathroom breaks, water breaks) 15 miles without dropping has been my record.

The weather was perfect yesterday, with temperatures in the upper 60s, and mostly cloudy. I ran north on the Putnam trail, then ran east to White Plains to get to the Bronx river trail which I used to run back south, doing a big oval. It took me 3 hours and 37 minutes to run 23.3 miles, at a 9:18 pace. The upper body exercises like push-ups and curls I did on the same day I joggled lemons may have also helped. I also kept tricks to a minimum, since I often drop while doing them.

Like I said before, this wasn’t uninterrupted joggling, since I did carry them a few times for a few seconds when crossing busy streets, and I stopped to get some juice up in Elmsford, but still, I didn’t drop them even once while joggling. It feels miraculous. This shows how doing something ridiculous can improve athleticism. The challenge of joggling with irregularly shaped lemons may have improved my precision, so it was easier to joggle with my regular balls.

It has taken me years to get to this point. Juggling/joggling is like playing a musical instrument, it requires a lot of practice to achieve proficiency. But don’t let this intimidate you. I remember when I couldn’t juggle at all, and when I finally could, I frequently dropped. When I first learned to joggle I couldn’t run more than 50 feet without dropping the balls. After finally going beyond 50 feet, for many months I couldn’t break the 0.3 mile barrier. I finally broke through 0.3 mile, and next thing I knew 1 mile was the new barrier. Then 2 miles. Then 5. Then 8. Then 10. Then 15. And now 23.

Years ago, I never would have imagined being able run 23 miles while juggling and not dropping the balls even once. You never know what you’re capable of until you try it. Truth be told, and this isn’t the first time I am saying this but I am not innately well-coordinated. In fact, I still think I am closer to a clutz than a well-coordinated person. This is largely why I didn’t play any sports in high school, not even the track team. I was the kid in gym class everyone laughed at because I couldn’t catch or throw.

I hope this inspires you to be more creative with your fitness routine. Try new things, be ridiculous. You may be astonished by the results!

I will be running the Yonkers Marathon next month

I just registered for the Yonkers Marathon! This will be my very first marathon. It is scheduled for september 29th, at 8 AM, and the course involves running this big circle around the entire city of Yonkers, and a little bit of Hastings-on-Hudson twice(once for the half-marathon). Yes, I will be juggling the entire race.

I didn’t realize just how old the Yonkers Marathon was until recently. It was founded in 1907, making it the second oldest marathon in the U.S, second only to the Boston Marathon. I also didn’t realize how storied it was. The Yonkers Marathon was both a training ground and qualifier for the Olympics! However, after the founding of the New York City Marathon in 1970(as well as other marathons in the area), the Yonkers Marathon started to fade into obscurity, some years attracting just hundreds of runners. Yonkers is on the northern border of New York City.

The course of the Yonkers Marathon is notoriously hilly, and challenging, though not as hilly as it used to be due to several reroutings. I am already familiar with many of these hills, though I haven’t run a significant length of the course. Personally, I prefer a small city/suburban marathon to a big city marathon like the NYC Marathon since I am not fond of large crowds and noise.

Most years I think the Yonkers Marathon gets zero to maybe at most 1 joggler, though I need to do more research on this to verify. Last year it had a little over 1,000 runners for both the full marathon and half marathon.

I also don’t know how many vegan runners(there are plenty of vegan marathon and ultra-marathon runners out there) the Yonkers Marathon usually gets, but its usually not a lot. As far as I know, and this may be the case for the entire world, there are no vegan jogglers who have run entire marathons. Sure there are vegan and vegetarian jugglers, and as I said before vegan marathoners, but no vegan joggler marathoners(if you happen to know of one, please share). Of course, there are plenty of non-vegan jogglers who run marathons out there.

Should I complete this, and I don’t necessarily mean to brag, I may become the world’s first vegan joggler marathoner(though my time will not be that remarkable since I am a slow runner). The fact that it can be done at all shows how silly the notion of vegans being “weak” is.

I have been marathon training for months. So except for regularly going on long runs in very hilly areas to prepare for the beast that is the Yonkers Marathon, I need not do anything significantly different from what I am already doing. Yonkers is so close to me that I regularly run its hilly terrain, so I should be able to handle the hills on race day.

A big thank you to everyone who has been following my training for your kind words and support. If anyone reading this is going to be running the Yonkers Marathon, I look forward to seeing you on september 29th! Let’s hope the weather cools down by then.