I have a confession: sometime post-pandemic, I stopped doing birthday math. Time seems to speed up with each year, so I just settled on “I’m in my mid-30s” and stopped worrying about the specifics. Similarly, I told folks I’d “just moved” to Denver after nearly three years there. More recently, I’ve “just moved” to NYC, though it’s been a more reasonable two months.
The last birthday that felt significant was 29-going-on-30, mostly because of other folks’ reactions. I also experienced a lot of life change during my 29th year: leaving my role as a Product Manager at Lyft, joining South Park Commons as a Founder Fellow, starting my company (now called CodeYam), meeting my cofounder, and relocating from San Francisco to Del Mar to surf and save my mental, physical, and emotional health during the depths of the pandemic.
I always thought I’d move right back to San Francisco. Instead, I spent nearly three years in Del Mar across two different apartments, then three more years in Denver, followed by a move to NYC, where I plan to stay for the foreseeable future while my partner completes his medical fellowship.
On a long run recently, someone asked me about my startup and then my career and after my answer, asked how old I was. When I told them I was turning 35, they told me I didn’t look it. I’ll take that, although I also think there are many fabulous-looking 35 year olds and it’s not what the 00s sitcoms made it out to be (necessarily).
Turning 35 seems to have a lot in common with 29, in that it’s another year of change and confronting some big unknowns. Will my startup, CodeYam, achieve product-market fit now that we’re out of research and development (R&D) and delivering a product to users? Will we figure out how to make enough revenue to sustain us and/or get to the kind of growth we’d like to see ahead of our next fundraise? Or will we, like so many startups before us, die trying?
I’m being a bit dramatic, of course. Luckily, we’ve got enough runway to see us through a couple more years, so this isn’t quite sink-or-swim. But as a startup now putting a product into the market that I care deeply about, and recognize still has so much room to improve, it often feels that way.
I told another friend this feels like a pivotal year for me and for CodeYam. She reminded me I’ve said that for the past five years. And yet, this year really does feel like a pivotal year!
As I reflect on what’s happened and what’s to come, I wanted to do two things:
Acknowledge that, at 35, I’m no less wildly ambitious for myself, my impact, or my startup (if anything, probably more so); and
Share a bit about a personal goal that I understand is somewhat crazy and ill-advised, but that I’m pursuing anyway and hope you’ll support me in chasing.
Preparing for Runtoberfest!
Last year, a week after my birthday, I ran my first marathon: the Boulderthon in Boulder, CO. It was incredible, it was hard, and it made me want to go farther, faster, and run on more roads and trails.
Since it became clear I’d be moving to NYC, I’ve been NYC Marathon-curious. However, running has exploded in popularity (yay!), meaning that if you want to run the NYC Marathon, you likely need to plan way in advance (aww).
I’d heard of the legendary 9+1 program, where New York locals can run nine New York Road Runners (NYRR) races and volunteer at one to earn guaranteed entry to the TCS New York City Marathon the following year.
So I joined NYRR as a member (check) and tried to sign up for races over the summer. I quickly realized I’d underestimated their popularity: after spending a lot of time in online queues, I’d gotten exactly zero race slots.
Baffled, I took to Threads, where folks shared tips for getting into NYRR 9+1 eligible races and ideas for alternatives.
Note: NYRR has since changed to a new registration system that kicks into gear this September. You can learn more about that here.
A helpful Race Director in Westchester shared that they had a trail half marathon coming up.
Note that “trail” is quite luxurious here: more paved bike paths, less mountain scree.
Fresh from the fun of RAMParty in Colorado Springs, I signed up.
Then I learned about Race the Perimeter, a casual race you can compete in individually or with a team that goes around the perimeter of NYC, covering approximately 33 miles, technically an “ultramarathon” since it’s longer than a marathon.
I decided this would be a fun goal and a great new-to-NYC adventure, so I signed up to run it solo and convinced at least one other person (you know who you are, thank you friend!) to do the same.
So far, ambitious but reasonable, right?
Then, NYRR released a wave of fall races and, in an attempt to figure out how to actually get into them, I signed up for a bunch of shorter-distance fall and winter races. These would be fine, I thought to myself. One of them is a 5K on the morning of Halloween, October 31st.
Shortly after that, I saw the lottery for the Virtual NYC Marathon, where, if selected, I could complete a marathon on my own, tracked via GPS/Strava, anytime between October 24th and November 1st. Given how competitive everything seemed to be, I assumed my odds of getting selected were close to nil. So, why not?
Then, to my shock, excitement, and slight horror, I got SELECTED.
And so what I’m now calling “Runtoberfest” was born! I’ll be racing basically every week in October, with the following lineup:
Week 1: Ultramarathon (Race the Perimeter)
Week 2: Trail Half Marathon (Paine to Pain)
Week 3 or 4: Virtual Marathon (Virtual TCS New York City Marathon)
Week 4: NYRR 5K on Halloween (Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K)
Friends: I’m sorry, I love you, please forgive and support me
Luckily, I’ve been training! While the escalation of races from one to “Runtoberfest” happened somewhat recently, my training has been in progress since before I left Colorado (several months).
However, this is still a crazy push for me, mentally and physically. I’m getting faster and fitter, but I have a lot of work left to do in the remaining month of training.
I’ve also been prioritizing surfing now that I’m back on a coast to help reset mentally and cross-train in a way that’s actually fun. It also helps me mull over startup-related complex problems and generate ideas as a fun bonus. I haven’t strength trained or stretched nearly enough, but I’ll keep trying to improve there.
The combination of running + surfing + working on a startup post-move has meant I’ve been pretty unavailable. Long runs are increasingly taking over my weekends, and between that and surfing, I’m often pretty remote during the day and exhausted at night when I’m not working.
Why am I doing this?
While this wasn’t intentional at first, going all-in is an intentional choice. I just like the idea of a crazy ambitious goal, and this felt like an on-my-edge-but-not-necessarily-beyond-it push that I wanted to see if I could do. I’m not trying to set any PRs or records in these races. Most of all, I just want to finish all four without getting injured.
Leading up to the races, my biggest fears are getting sick or hurt. And, in case this wasn’t unhinged enough, I’m also planning to take a week in September to travel to see my parents (my first birthday with them in years) and attend a celebration in Cambridge, MA, for the Harvard Women’s Fencing Team’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.
I recognize that fall is normally one of the most fun and social seasons in NYC. I also recognize that I’m new here and there are so many amazing people I’m overdue to see. So, friends, I ask that you be patient with me. If I’m a ghost (except on my private Strava and my new public Instagram and Threads) for the next two months, you now know why.
I can’t wait to (hopefully!) emerge on the other side and, after some recovery and rest, celebrate the rest of fall and the magic of winter in NYC with you all. In the meantime, please forgive me for being a little single-minded as I pursue these crazy, ambitious racing goals in parallel with the already crazy, 24/7 job of being a startup founder.
I’m sorry, I love you, please forgive and support me.