November Runner of the Month: Jeanine Encizo

Jeanine joined NBR in January 2018, attending the Saturday Morning Bridge Run for her first time. However, she didn’t start regularly attending runs until June when she moved to Greenpoint. “I wanted to meet people who live in my immediate neighborhood. It worked!” You can find Jeanine on Monday Morning as one of our MMER run leaders, as well as one of our social coordinators. She is also the person who posts our run schedule on the Instagram Story every day!

What do you do when you're not running?
I work in Media Production Operations for a music company and am also the president of a wellness employee resource group there that curates events & programming that focuses on emotional, mental, physical and financial wellbeing. I’m a dog-mom (@captainoats.adventures 👀) too, so that takes up a lot of time!

How did you initially get into running?
I attended private school for much of my life, so we didn’t really have athletic leagues in 7th/8th grade. I grew up watching my older siblings run cross country though and thought it looked fun. I felt like I was being held back without being on a team like public school kids my age could, so I took to the interwebz and did an AOL search? (Google wasn’t mainstream yet; it was 2002.) and found a USATF XC team. My mom drove me 40 minutes once a week to run the 2-2.5 miles with them. We did, what I remember as weird foot walking in the grass after (foot and ankle strengthening exercises) and one day my coach hooked up a portable generator to his car and we made smoothies in the parking lot after practice. It was all the good type of strange; I loved it immediately and haven’t stopped since.

What is your favorite race distance?
Marathons are always special, but I think I prefer half marathons. Not quite as demanding in time or physical training. I will always love 5Ks though, very nostalgic XC distance for me.

Best running memory?
This is a high school one, but every cross country season we had two fun runs, an ice cream run and later in the season and weather dependent, a mud run. It’s pretty much how it sounds, we would run down to the park we normally would train in and make it a point to run through puddles and pretty much embrace the mud. We crafted mud balls and threw them at each other as if they were snow balls. Slide through the mud laughing without a care as to how disgusting it was. Needless to say our parents weren’t as gung-ho about it when they had to pick us up because we were too smelly and gross to take the buses home and then had to get in the car, but worth it.

Favorite running route in NYC?
I always love the views of the city skyline running over the Williamsburg bridge, but this year I’ve been enjoying running down to Brooklyn bridge park and taking in those scenic water views.

Any running-related superstitions?
Not sure if I’d call it superstition, more just for comfort or to be in race-mode. But, I usually braid or straighten my hair for races. Straight hair feels lighter in a ponytail.

What has running taught you or changed about you?
Probably a lot, but I think the most valuable thing is to always keep going even when it’s hard.

Favorite post-race food?
Early AM post-race is some sort of flavored pancakes. After Chicago I got really good Butter Pecan pancakes. And, then later in the day I’ll usually get a really well made delicious plant-based burger and fries.

Favorite song to run to make you want to run?
This is tough. I don’t really listen to pump up music when I run, it’s more music that gets me in a flow and keeps me relaxed.

Favorite running social media account?
Emily Sisson, she’s a fellow dog-lover and just seems really down to earth.

What do you think is the worst part about being a runner?
Toe nail trauma. :(

Best advice to running newbies?
Celebrate the small victories along the way just as much as the big victories. Have a session with a sports nutritionist, most insurance plans cover it and if not it’s 1000% worth the investment. Fueling right gives you longevity in this sport and makes you feel better in training and life! Plus it takes out the guessing work. Lastly, high mileage doesn’t always equate to success. Wait now last one! Treat your rest and recovery days just as highly as your tempo and speed days.

Current running goal?
To finally BQ and to eventually run a sub-20 5k.

Any other fun running facts about you?
I just celebrated my 20 year run-versary in September, if that’s a thing? Two+ decades doing this strange running thing and wouldn’t change a day of it.