I always hated running. And now I have a running blog.

I started running in summer 2017 when a separation forced me to commute from Bushwick to Manhattan once a week. I dreaded it, so I started looking for opportunities to hang out with my friends in Brooklyn, aka drink myself through the evening. It wasn’t good.

To change things up I decided to run to the Williamsburg Bridge. I always hated running, and it was really hard. After a few runs I managed to run onto, then over the bridge. Finally, I made it home to East Village, feeling great. I started using an app and logged my first 6.24mi run in 54m35s, average pace of 8:45 min/mi.

![](https://run.dblock.org/images/posts/2017/2017-10-01-why-do-i-run/6miles.png)

My first 10 mile run around lower Manhattan three weeks later made the city feel much smaller. I logged 1h29m at 8:33 min/mi.

![](https://run.dblock.org/images/posts/2017/2017-10-01-why-do-i-run/10miles.png)

I woke up that weekend and felt compelled to run to Brighton Beach. Those 13 miles felt like forever at just over two hours, averaging 9:15 min/mi.

![](https://run.dblock.org/images/posts/2017/2017-10-01-why-do-i-run/13miles.png)

I’ve also run a few NYRR races, my official results are [here](https://results.nyrr.org/runner/52863476/races), including the 2017 4M Race to Deliver, the awesome [2017 4M Midnight Run](/2017/12/31/run-4.12mi-0h30m42s.html) (in 7 degree weather), the [2018 Fred Lebow Manhattan Half](/2018/01/21/run-13.34mi-1h47m18s.html) and [the United Airlines Half (for charity)](/2018/03/18/thank-you-on-behalf-of-team-for-kids.html) and am running my first marathon this year!

I am hooked. I am now using Strava to log my runs (please [follow me](https://www.strava.com/athletes/dblockdotorg)) and this blog is updated automatically from the app data.