First plogging and barefoot run of 2026
Longtime readers know I switched from running to plogging, which led to a bunch of media doing stories on me. I can’t help sharing the stories. The earliest I found was 2018:
- “17 Creative Weekend Routines For a Happier, More Successful Week,” including plogging about a story on me in Thrive Global in 2018
- 120: Rules for plogging in New York City a podcast episode I did in 2019
- I’m famous for plogging! See me pick up litter while I run on local news. Fox did a story on my in January 2019
- I plogged on TV with the Doctor and the Diva A talk show recorded me plogging and invited me in to talk about it in September 2019
- Inspired to my first run in almost a year: 9 miles. Still plogging. a regular blog post in 2021
Then no posts on plogging for almost five years. I didn’t run for a while because somewhere around there I tore the meniscus in my left knee and the insurance company made me do a year of physical therapy before allowing an MRI to confirm. I took a while to recover after the surgery.
Then a few things conspired. Walking along the river yesterday made me think of running.
Today is beautiful, after an unusually cold winter.
My volunteer food delivery today left me with an abundance of unclaimed fruits and vegetables, so I’ll probably eat more than usual.
Last month a bunch of people forwarded a story the NY Post did on plogging: ‘Plogging’ fitness trend is taking over New York City’s dirty streets — and keeping people in shape.
So I went out plogging. Longtime readers may also know my podcast guest and bestselling author Nir Eyal inspired me to run barefoot, as I wrote about in Learning to walk barefoot again.
So I plogged in shoes through regular Manhattan streets and avenues, then took of my shoes and plogged along the river, where there aren’t any intersections.
I was pleasantly surprised that not many people passed me. A larger fraction of runners are younger than me than ever. C’est la vie.
I didn’t see anyone else plogging, as best I could tell, or picking up litter while walking, for that matter, but I saw plenty of people with disposable packaging and trash cans overflowing with food and doof packaging. I didn’t see anyone eating unpackaged produce.
Tragic.
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