I Run Like A Girl

I can’t believe it’s officially October! I’ve been trying to hold onto the last remains of summer these past few weeks… but now there’s no denying it’s a start of a new chapter.

By far, the highlight of my week was being part of a film production for Airbnb!! A few weeks ago, the Airbnb team reached out to me asking if I wanted to be part of a film they were making to celebrate running in NYC in return for a bid for the NYC marathon. I had some contacts from Airbnb since they sponsored me last year for the NYC marathon. I said yes to the opportunity but turned down the bid – it was a tough decision, but I knew I couldn’t pull together marathon shape in 6 short weeks.

In any case, I was SUPER stoked to be part of this and see what it was like to work on a film for the first time! Call time was 6:15am on Saturday in LES…apparently it’s typical to start and end at obscene hours when filming. I got on set in my running outfit (the production team approved before-hand), borrowed some non-labeled running shoes, and the makeup team touched up my hair and face.

While we were waiting for direction, I got to know the rest of the cast. I was so pleasantly surprised and ECSTATIC to see one of my favorite running bloggers, Michele (the NYC Running Mama) part of the cast!! She’s such an inspirational runner from Staten Island balancing working life, family, and running marathons. I’ve been following Michele for years, and it was so nice to meet her in person finally! She was even more humble and sweet in person and so much fun to shoot with 🙂

The rest of the morning was spent filming several shots of us running in different spots along the East River. Even though the film industry sounds glamorous, I must say actually filming was a little boring and repetitive. We took upwards of 5 shots of each scene, and lots of time was spent waiting in the cold.

What made it fun was definitely spending time with the cast. I always complain about not having many running friends, and this was such a natural, fun way to get to know some other runners in the city!

Next, we spent an hour doing a photoshoot around LES, the photos will apparently be used on NYC bus stops. Your girl is gonna be famous 😉

We finished around 11am, and some of the cast decided to get some brunch afterward. It was lovely to sit down and get to know some awesome ladies 🙂 I’m always amazed and heart-warmed when in a matter of a few short hours, strangers can feel like close friends.

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Other weekly highlights:

Low key running week 

I hit a high mileage last week and was looking to take it easy this week. Tuesday was 5 easy miles in Astoria at sunset; I lost my credit card during this run unfortunately while taking this photo; a reminder to myself to always stay alert on runs!

Thursday was 4 progression-tempo miles on the treadmill. No long run this week.

Bubble tea incident

Friday night, I headed to east village to see Christine, the first time in 2 weeks! Although, it didn’t feel like so long since we FaceTime almost every other day, but it was definitely nice to kick back at her apartment and catch up. For dinner, we stopped by a dumpling spot at St. Marks. Christine ordered bubble tea, she tasted it, and said something was off…I went in for a sip and projectile SPAT it out! They filled the entire cup with SOY SAUCE. We went back and ended up laughing hysterically with the server.

Fishbowl

Saturday night, I went over to a friend’s for a night of drinking and playing fishbowl. I’m not the biggest on group games, but it ended up being super fun! The game is a combination of many – charades, taboo, password. Definitely recommend for a hilarious, entertaining, game for you and your friends 🙂

 

Have a great start to the week y’all!!