North Brooklyn Runners: A Community Running Group Serving Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, and Beyond!

NBR MEMBER PROFILES

NBR Profile No. 1

Rodrigo Toscano talks with AJA MARSH

Aja Tahari Marsh is the founder of the North Brooklyn Runners. Aja also conceptualized and co-founded Work It Brooklyn. She has actively worked with Open Space Alliance, Williamsburg Walks, Neighbors for Allied Growth, North Brooklyn Compost Project, and the Greenpoint Food Market (as Sandwich Friend). Aja has placed twice in the top three in her age group in the Greenpoint 5k. She has lived both in Greenpoint and Williamsburg.

RT: It’s really mind blowing to think about not only the numerical growth of the NBR (436 members in the Google group, and about 100-150 active members), but also the diversity of types of runners (and personalities!) that we have. How did it all start? Where did you get the initial idea for the North Brooklyn Runners? Was it something that suddenly sprouted in your mind, or was it something that slowly dawned on you over time?

AM: I know! I still can’t believe it – it’s grown from me knowing a few handfuls of people in the group to meeting new people every time I make it out to a run or race – amazing! A couple of years back, after a couple of years in North Brooklyn, I found myself yearning for a real community – I saw the neighborhood how it is/was often characterized – a sea of young, hip, and ambivalent individuals. I refused to believe that was everyone, but I didn’t know who and how to connect with people who I felt were more “like me.” Fast forward a year later, I had completed a few road races through NYRR and my first half marathon (the NYC Half). I was fired up and got really excited when I saw familiar faces at the track and people on the street wearing the same race shirts as me. I’m not really the kind of person who goes up and talks to random strangers, let alone in the middle of a workout, but I wanted to connect to them. I considered starting a running group, but abandoned the idea because I wasn’t sure I wanted to commit to the challenge. I looked into running clubs in the city, but knew I wouldn’t make it to Central or Prospect Park workouts often enough for it to be worth my while. I left the idea alone. But it kept nagging me. The beginning of 2009 brought a surge of energy and I just created an email account, designed a flyer, and hung them up in McCarren Park in the freezing weather, figuring anyone crazy enough to be running in the cold would probably like to meet some like-minded folks. I got a few e-mails, we set off on our very first Bridge Run & Coffee. I was excited that we had a few people show up and didn’t expect much more than that. Needless to say, I had no idea what I was in for.

RT: I often think about the club’s unique structure, its totally from the ground up DIY culture, how it sets the overall tone for the club. In light of living in a society where “value”, monetary value, “cultural” value – exchange of value to be exact, how that often becomes the terrain for so many human interactions, it’s amazing to think that here we have an ever-changing assembly of people where nobody accrues any real “power” over anybody else. Roles change, reverse direction. It’s truly a peer-to-peer kind of ethics that’s shared among us. Wacked out fun – is another way to put it. Was the structure something that you thought of in advance, or how did it come about?

AM: Ha! I had no thought about the structure of NBR, other than once it was clear that it was growing quickly, I needed help keeping it together, but I wanted it to evolve organically. We had our few planning meetings in the beginning and several people who stepped up early on to lend a hand. I was personally so grateful for that, and as regards myself, I just wanted, and still want, the group to be about everyone else and not about me (on some level, I suppose that’s a difficult task to achieve, but it’s honestly my sentiment!), so having members be able to do what they wished with and within the group has been really important to me. I refer to NBR as a community organization, because it is every representation of those words, as a unit, and individually.

Lately, because of such tremendous growth, we’ve had to integrate more specific infrastructure, but structure that, I think, will help us most efficiently manage continued growth over the months, years.

RT: Really exciting too is that people have learned how to start a club like NBR. Lately, we’ve had people moving away and I’ve heard many of them say that they’re thinking about starting a club in their new locations. I’m totally tripping out on this scenario a few years down the line, where when we visit a city (like Denver, or New Haven, or “somewhere in Jamaica Plain, MA) we’ll have the option of running and hanging out with old friends and also meeting new ones. F2F (“face to face”) galore in an age dominated by cyber “encounters” and “communities.”

So, “back in the day” I knew you not only as an organizer, but also as a stone-to-the-bone runner, sweating out alongside a handful of us, and leading tempo runs and conducting form workshops on Tuesdays. We haven’t chatted in a while…but I’ve been wondering… what is your attitude towards your own running these days, how do you feel about it? Is there anything that’s changed for you, say, in the last year or so?

AM: Oh, boy. Well, I guess I’ve never considered myself a “serious runner” but just as someone who prefers running as a form of exercise and stress relief, and hey, it’s even fun sometimes! As with many things in my life, things come and go in waves – they’re not always gone but lay dormant for a while until I get inspired again. Running is very much like that for me, which is maybe a weird thing to admit as the founder of a running club. I’d been running pretty regularly and earnestly the year before I started NBR, after a couple of years of doing it off and on, and when NBR began to bloom, I was running 5 days a week and I had never been fitter or faster – it was thrilling! This year, I’ve been a bit disappointed because I’ve seen firsthand the direct correlation of not running as much equaling not running at all faster, or at least, not as fast. I mean, wow, they’re related!? Ha ha. In late spring and early summer, after the Brooklyn Half, I was feeling especially woeful about running. Maybe it was to do with the heat or my own attitude, but I felt very much “trapped” in running and longed to move my body in other ways. I didn’t quite get as far as taking a dance class before I just started hitting the pavement more regularly again, but I do think, for me, it’s important to keep things interesting – and having a particular race in mind helps – for now, I’m thinking about running the Miami Half in January.

RT: Totally, I hear you. It’s important to have a race (or particular, personal “achievement” run) that’s projected out into the future. Upcoming races interrelate each of our runs into a richer narrative than just adding another hash mark to the tally. Racing can bypass the tiresome dichotomy of “good / “bad” running days: all runs matter. I am also – I must admit, relieved to hear you comp to burning out at times, and then popping back. I think between our team cheerleading, post-race merriment, and endless stream of hot tips, each of us experience incredible letdowns and doubts about our relationship to running.

Also, this thing you’re saying of “laying dormant” I find compelling. It’s nearly impossible to idle down living in NYC, but people plot out different strategies as to how to do just that. One thing that you and others are really good at is planning restorative fun runs, where “the race” is only part of an overall range of activities. Like this “Tomato Trot 5K” (at the Red Fire Farm in Granby, Massachusetts) that you and others just did…how’d that go?

AM: The Tomato Trot was really fun, but most of us agreed it felt like the longest 3(.1) miles we’d ever run! Though we may rule the hard streets of New York, running in the country was a new challenge! The course circled two of the farm’s fields, and a short spurt on the road, with volunteers and spray chalk indicating the way, most of the race course was on tractor paths that had some major divots that you had to watch out for, especially as some were covered with hay or overgrown grass. Thankfully, none of us sustained any injuries, though one of our crew fell by the chicken coop and I took a wrong turn in the last 200 meters and lost my lead on the female runner closest to me. Also, at a 10:30am start at the end of August it was pretty hot – I definitely felt ill afterward! Apparently this race boasted their biggest turnout yet and the spectators were enthusiastic and there was watermelon and peaches at the end! But the best part was definitely spending the day with everyone, tasting dozens of tomatoes, shopping at the farmstand, and taking in the really beautiful day on the farm.

RT: What a great way to end the summer – farm danger derby. I’m already starting to miss this beautiful (scandalously brief!) New York autumn. Soon, we’ll be scuffling through ice – our own urban brand of “divots” (I had to look that word up )

Aja! On behalf of all us in the NBR, thank you so much for everything.

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