Final Sprint!

It's the final week of Runnaisance!!!

April 24 to 26.

Two arenas. Same weekend.

13.1 miles and my work at the Superfine Art Fair.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been waking up with the same question.

Can I run today? How's my injury?

Some days the answer felt like yes.Some days it clearly wasn’t.

So I kept testing.

A few miles, then pull back.A little more, then reassess.

Not fully injured anymore. But not fully ready either.

Just in between.

At first, I thought this phase would pass quickly. That one good run would give me clarity. That I would wake up one morning and just know I was ready.

That never happened.

Instead, every day felt like a small negotiation.

Push a little.Hold back a little. See how it responds.

Repeat.

Physically, it was manageable. Mentally, it was exhausting.

Because there was no clear direction. No clean signal. Just constant back and forth.

And after a point, that limbo started to feel heavier than the injury itself.

Injury has a kind of clarity. You stop, you recover, you rebuild.

Peak training has clarity too. You follow the plan and you push.

But this phase sits in the middle. It gives you just enough to keep going, but not enough to feel confident about it.

So I kept waiting for certainty.

A run that felt strong.A body that felt reliable.A moment that said, you are ready now.

It didn’t come.

So I had to make a decision without it.

I am going to get to the Start line, come what may.

Not because everything feels perfect.Not because the preparation went exactly as planned.

But because I do not want to stay in that limbo anymore.

At some point, continuing to wait becomes its own form of avoidance.

Right now, the goal is simple.

Get to the start line without breaking again.

That is it.

No time targets. No performance pressure. No trying to make up for lost training.

Just arrive intact.

The finish line is a separate problem. I will deal with that when I get there!

What has been interesting is that this same phase has been unfolding in the studio.

The paintings I have been working on for this exhibition do not feel like output.

They feel like documentation.

Not of progress, but of states.

Uncertainty.Restraint.Fatigue.Composure.

Showing up without full confidence. Continuing without guarantees.

I did not set out to make work about this. But looking at the body of work now, it is clear.

The running and the painting have not been separate.

They have been the same process, just expressed differently.

Two arenas. Same demand.

And now they meet in the same weekend.

Which makes this final week feel different.

Not like a final push.

More like a narrowing of focus.

No overreaching.No chasing what did not happen.No trying to fix everything at the last minute.

Just trusting what has already been built. There is still uncertainty.

The race might not go how I want.The work might not land the way I hope.

But that was always part of it.

Runnaisance was never about perfect conditions!

It was about showing up prepared enough and steady enough to step into both arenas anyway.

One week out.

The only goal that matters right now is getting to the start line intact.

Everything else can wait!!