In order to transport horses from Mexico to the United States by truck, the USDA requires a mandatory three day quarantine in a facility just north of the Texas/Mexico border. Due to organizational misfires and the general trappings of bureaucracy, the quarantine period often extends into the four to five day range, pending paperwork, transportation, and the efficiency of the border crossing itself. One autumn, I accompanied two horses to Mexico and back, and though I was technically traveling alone, I ended up crossing the border with a small cohort of Mexican American men, also professional grooms, whose respective employers were using the same horse transportation company as my boss.

I picked up running seriously in the fall of 2017, when I decided to run a half marathon on New Year’s Eve, a flat and scenic route in the town of Delray, along South Florida’s iconic A1A. I was on a six week vacation at the time, staying with my parents between jobs, and every morning I’d roll out of bed and log three to four miles along the streets of their small, harborside Rhode Island town. I remember the first time I ran five miles that September, when the heat of summer started bleeding into a Northeast fall, and when I made it back to my front door, I felt like I could do anything.