“But what if it’s about FEELING fast, on your own terms? What if it’s just about the feeling of stripping it all down and getting back to running itself—the feeling of being outchea, beating the clock, beating your friend, your best frenemy, beating inner voices and past demons, beating back death, beating who you were yesterday or yesteryear? What if it’s about honoring and celebrating and reveling in the work it took to get right here right now: the feeling of running fast and free once springtime hits? Or—let’s go—what if it’s about feeling fast when when you’re not running at all, race day medal hanging absurdly around your neck on the train to work some otherwise dreary Monday morning, sore feet propped up on the desk at the office in that gesture of affected nonchalance like, hey I had a long run with my crew yesterday NBD yall, you standing there all aglow on the corner in midtown Madhattan lunch rush and walking (sloooowly) to get ramen for lunch? What if it’s about swapping out the venti crappucino for a superfoods smoothie and yes what if it’s about this many miles means this many beers, this many margaritas, this many watermelons hollowed out then refilled with watermelon soju? In this little thing of ours we have women who have over five, six, seven marathons under their fuelbelts and dudes who have never toed the starting line, we have five-hour marathoners training with 2:30 (ok, ok, 2:36) marathoners, we have someone who’s died before and come back to claim life and a guy who’s hoping to be the second man in his family to live past the age of 40. We have people rediscovering the joys of sport they knew as a teenager and people who have been running for less than a year. We have a group of people just running together because what if? What if BLACK ROSES NYC feels just like you? #nevernotrunning”

— Papa Rose aka First Run aka KNOX for @BlackRosesNYC