Cory Booker Celebrates 1 Year Of Daily Running With Jog In Newark

NEWARK, NJ — U.S. Sen. Cory Booker had one of the most successful runs of his career last year. But it wasn’t for office – it was for fun.

At the start of 2022, Booker – a Newark resident – made a personal pledge to take a jog every day until his birthday on April 27. According to the senator, his runs became an empowering habit that he couldn’t give up, even after his birthday had passed. Through legislative sessions and cross-country travel, Booker kept up his efforts, developing a new goal along the way: a full year of running every day.

And last week – 365 days later – the senator finally hit his milestone in his home city.

When the Brick City Run Club invited Booker to take part in their 2023 New Year’s Day outing, he leapt at the chance, joining the group for a brisk winter jog at Nat Turner Park.

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Booker, one of New Jersey’s most well-known vegans and a former Stanford University football standout, has spoken on social media about the joy, empowerment and gratitude that his new daily habit has given him.

As he wrote in a recent Instagram post:

“This has been a great personal experiment with wonderful results. There have been obvious health benefits, but perhaps the biggest gifts have been to my mental health. [In] December last year, I couldn’t commit to running a full 365 days in a row because it seemed too big of a goal or commitment too easy to come up short (who wants that disappointment). And yet now I feel so much more empowered. What a gift to yourself to do something you thought you couldn’t do, to go beyond your perceived limits, to expand your sense of what is personally possible. What a small, but meaningful sense of triumph that has just lifted my life. This is just a personal goal, small in the grand scheme of what is going on in the world. And yet, when we step out of our usual days, take on a challenge, adopt a difficult goal, expand our mind’s sense of the possible, improve our wellbeing, take care of our physical and mental health, it all helps to expand and elevate our energy and effectiveness to make contributions in the world.”

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