SATURDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
Grants Tomb to Morningside Drive,
West 110th to 2nd Ave,
102nd to Wards Island,
97th over to the west side through Central Park,
Zig-zag to West 66th St,
Broadway to 14th and Union Square, left to Ave A,
Down to Tompkins Square, through the Astor Place Cube to Washington Square, down LeGuardia to finish on Greene St and Canal.
It was Saturday night, the eve of the NYC Marathon. Thousands of runners were in bed, full of carbs and sleep, already exhausted from the training, long travels, race expo, and the general buzz of the New York City Marathon weekend. Uptown on 123rd St, 600 runners were not in bed and were ready to race with excitement.
I was there to cheer my friends and the Native community running the marathon, and importantly, to unveil a new collaborative collection: a limited edition NYC Marathon and Rising Hearts race kit with rabbit.
Not wanting anyone to be left out, Joe DiNoto, founder and director of Orchard Street Running, threw one of his infamous street races on the night before the marathon. This one aligned with the lingo and linear dialect of true street running, yet it was new, always becoming, always evolving. It was called the Prototype Race, a working simulation for the future of this race format in NYC on the night before the marathon.
The rules and distance of the Prototype Race were simple: a half marathon through the streets of the city, unsanctioned, thrilling, moving with traffic flow and cutting through the parks. Four checkpoints, route yourself, collect a piece of candy at each spot, and bring them all to the finish.
I was a bike messenger in NYC for a good amount of time, and during that time, for fun and the sport of bike messenger culture, the city became a navigational playground for weekend street races known as Alleycats. To understand the complexities and shortcuts of NYC, we relied on our daily work routines that navigated all areas: Battery Park to Harlem, west side to east side, and all in between. This was daily life, and it all became second nature to ride the concrete waves and physicality of this city. That time as a bike messenger came in handy during this race, using the same strategies without the bike and with only intuitive running.
To understand the complexities and shortcuts of NYC, we relied on our daily work routines that navigated all areas, Battery Park to Harlem, west side to east side and all in between. This was daily life, and it all became second nature to ride the concrete waves and physicality of this city.
That time, as a bike messenger came in handy during this race, the same strategies sans bike and just intuition running.
I’ve done a few Orchard Street runs before, always by chance, as they aligned with my trips to NYC. The runs are wickedly fast, radical, fun, and exhilarating, just like the bike messenger Alleycats.
Toeing the line at Grants Tomb, I was excited, the nerves turning into a familiarity I had missed and understood. The raw energy and atmosphere of seasonal change in the city, the senses fully awake, ready to run the city that was so transformative for me in my 20s and 30s. This race combined the past and present, returning in a new interaction.
I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was born in Tulsa and grew up in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I am Osage, Muscogee, and Cherokee. Running came later for me in life, yet I always had a fun relationship with athletic challenges. As an artist, the street culture and history in the arts pulled me toward the center point, the artistic hub of it all: NYC. My time there was fun and wild at times. I left in 2013 and have been permanently back in Tulsa since 2016. When I come back to New York to visit, running and art take precedence, and often it feels as if I never left.
The Prototype Race awakened the slumber of memory. As a Native runner, I think about the history of a city and who were its original occupants. This past NYC Marathon, I linked back up with Rising Hearts and rabbit to do a limited edition artist collaboration: a singlet, hat, and hoodie, with a small surprise selection of custom socks. The profits from these sales would benefit Rising Hearts and their heartwork, prioritizing Native voices, bringing visibility to athletes of color in the running sphere, and giving back to Native communities through advocacy and support.
For this night race, I wore the kit I had worked on, bringing it to life and activating the art and spirit of the rabbit × Rising Hearts collaboration through the streets of NYC—a city that is familiar to me and has held my dreams, as well as the dreams of many others, especially Indigenous peoples. Cities like this tell, and often obscure, the truths of the past and place. We are surrounded every day by the presence of Native history in America, also known as Turtle Island. Manhattan, and thousands of other cities, along with their names, testify to this history, reflecting either Native homelands or the legacies of settler-colonial empires like Spain, France, and England.
This weekend was special. For the first time at a Major Marathon, a collaboration rooted in art, Indigeneity, storytelling, and activism came together with a running brand (rabbit) to continue a dialogue Native people are so often asked to carry alone. But like the marathon itself, this work is a collective experience.
By activating this race kit on myself, running through Times Square at 9PM, or seeing others wearing it in the NYC Marathon, we are setting precedent. We are in motion to create the reality we see as necessary in a world that often says and shows otherwise. We are vanguards for visibility and equality. We are an extended rainbow that holds our ancestors, the arch always reaching higher to include those who do not feel seen, a beacon to join and feel inspired.
Crossing the finish line in SoHo that night, I felt a sense of great pride and strength. I had just run the whole length of Manhattan. The race kit was a tool of empowerment, another layer of paint on the New York City streets, dazzling the 13 miles ahead and activating a team, a belief in one another, a prayer, and art.
In Honor of Native American Heritage Month
A portion of the proceeds from the rabbit x Rising Hearts collection goes to supporting Rising Hearts, an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to amplifying community voices through kinship, movement advocacy, and storytelling.