Blair Potter
Event: TCS New York City Marathon
Date: November 1, 2026
Fred’s Team Participant for: This is my first year
This title, Why I Run, is partly borrowed
from Joan Didion’s Why I Write
Joan who borrowed her title from George
Orwell
because, as she says,
“[the words] seemed to sum up, in a no-
nonsense way, all I have to tell you.”
Why I Write
Vague, yet to the point,
an empty sentiment
It captures the ambiguity the act of writing
is,
what running may so often be,
necessity
Though what I can say
is that from now until November 1
Why I Run is entirely unambiguous, but
for Memorial Sloan Kettering,
for Fred’s Team,
Fred who co-founded the New York City
Marathon and was an MSK patient,
and for every dollar I raise that will go
directly to MSK labs to support cancer
research
I would be grateful for your support in any
amount 💛
Love,
Goal