Fast Asian Women, Fall Marathon Season and Costco Relish
A hectic and productive week
The Fifth Avenue Mile took place this past Sunday (9/8/2024). Aside from gasping on how fast the top men, women and non-binary athletes are (Josh Kerr, 3:45! Karissa Schweizer, 4:15! Elijah Taylor, 4:42!), I noticed there were only three Asian American female athletes in the top 100: Amanda Chang, 5:09, 49th, Mulan Xia, 5:19, 64th and Clair Li, 5:28, 100th. All three of them are from New York. While I definitely cheer for the success of these young, fast women, I also lament that there aren’t more fast Asian American women running at this race (or other races!) There are so many reasons why American road running, distance running, and now, trail running, are so white. This piece Why Are the Top U.S. Women Sprinters Black and the Top Marathoners White? by the fabulous
provides a historic perspective:“The disparity can be traced back to the culture of women’s athletics in the early 20th century. For the vast majority of women who attended college before the enactment of Title IX in 1972, which required schools to offer the same athletic opportunities to students regardless of gender, there were no competitive school sports to speak of. Women’s colleges, which long saw their mission as preparing elite white women to become wives and mothers, kept physical education non-competitive and certainly didn’t encourage intercollegiate athletics.”
The difference was at Tuskegee Institute (today’s Tuskegee University), which viewed track and field as a way to elevate Black athletes. A separate belief of what running (and athletics) can do for women started to build.
Road running has built-in barriers, including safety, costs and time. What puzzles me is the lack of a strong pipeline of Asian American women athletes in the U.S.. Even though the heyday of Chinese women’s long distance running has passed, with the truth of doping and abuse coming out of Ma’s Army, Chinese athletes continue to be competitive in several track and field events, including race walk, discus throw, hammer throw and hurdles. So it’s not the lack of physical competency. It’s societal and cultural. One day, I shall dive deep into this meaty topic.
Speaking of fast Asian American women runners, YiOu Wang announced on Instagram that she is pregnant! Congrats to her and family, and the mother runner collective gained one more fast member!
The Diamond League races just wrapped up in Brussels. This feels like a super long track season, possibly because of the summer Olympics. Nevertheless, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins both the 400m (49.11) and the 200m (22.40). Wow! Faith Kipyegon wins her fifth 1500m Diamond League title, setting a new meet record (3:54.75!)
The fall marathon season is fast approaching: The Chicago Marathon is only 28 days away. My dear friend and wonderful writer Emilia Benton will be running it! Emilia has been instrumental in helping me launch my writing career. We met over her writing of this story, 11 Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Runners Speak Out About Running and Race. I’m forever grateful for her coverage of BIPOC runners’ stories. Her recent piece on Self Magazine, Track Star (and Musician!) Nia Akins on the Songs That Hype Her Up and Calm Her Down is such a fun read!
The New York City Marathon is 48 days away. Rising Hearts, a nonprofit near and dear to my heart, will be hosting a few local run events. Rising Heart is committed to helping the running and outdoor spaces a more safe, supportive, diverse, inclusive, accessible and equitable space, not just for Indigenous runners, but for everyone who enjoys movement and who wants to see themselves in these spaces.
Rising Hearts will be sending a few athlete advocates to the marathon with a partnership with New York Road Runners and with On Running.
These athletes are: Goldstein Little Eagle (@glittleeagle ), Kali KO Mequinonoag Reis (@kali_ko_reis ), Yatika Starr Fields (@yatikafields ), and Jordan Marie Whetstone (@nativein_la ). There will be a couple of local community activations outside of the official event opportunities, so stay tuned!
(And if you think Kali might look familiar, she’s the first Indigenous Woman fighter to become a World Boxing Champion and the actress in True Detective: Night Country!)
Running in Pop Culture:
This NYT opinion piece on 77-year-old runner Allan Lichtman is fascinating! Lichtman is a history professor who developed a proprietary model for presidential elections. He’s successfully predicted almost every presidential election since 1984. A steeplechase champion in the 1970s, Lichtman developed 13 keys for election prediction with his geophysicist friend. Though I can’t create sophisticated predictive modeling, I certainly appreciate a good one when I see it. These 13 keys are: midterm gains, incumbency, primary contest, third party, short-term economy, long-term economy, policy change, social unrest, White House scandal, incumbent charisma, foreign policy failure, and foreign policy success. How this video links the presidential race to Lichtman’s running race is such a witty response to social media’s algorithmic dominance in our popular imagination. Well done Lichtman and NYT! Key message: this will be the tightest race, ever. Get out and vote!
By now, a lot of people already know that our VP candidate Tim Walz loves to run. But did you know he loves his HOKA Bondi shoes and wears a Garmin? At 57 years old, he managed to run a 1:32 10-miler — a good pace! Steve Magness found some stats on his recent races. 6:17 road mile at age 52. 21:43 5k at age 49. 1:47 half marathon at age 51. “Not too shabby”.
Personally, it’s been a hectic in-office week. I woke up a few mornings with a sore throat, a sign of lack of sleep. But I had a great fartlek on Tuesday, three incredibly productive days at the office with great meetings, and even went to see Esther Perel at the YouTube theater with my bestie on Tuesday night. In a theater of 6,000 filled seats, Esther managed to have both an intimate and transformative conversation with everyone. I was left with awe and a deepened desire to advocate for Esther to be on the People magazine cover as the sexiest woman alive.
I ran a little fun 5k on the Santa Monica beach bike path yesterday. Though my fitness is still in the improvement stage, I came home with a first-place medal. Then I did the most Asian mom thing ever - I renewed our Costco membership, which delighted my kids. My daughter has heard her friends talk about Costco trips forever and been feeling FOMO. My son wanted to buy specific items like Shin Ramen’s Costco-exclusive Gold Tonkotsu. We even ran into Sandro Roco and his wife. Sandro founded Sanzo, the first Asian-inspired sparkling water. The team was sampling at Costco, and of course, we supported the brand by buying several packs! The three of us, however, did manage to get out of Costco just under $500. That was a win!
Until next week.