Running Actually Isn’t as Simple as Lacing Up Your Shoes and Heading Out the Door—Invisible Barriers Keep Lots of People From Embracing the Sport

Highlighting issues like race and socioeconomic status—and uplifting folks who face them—is crucial to moving the sport forward.

One thing about me: I’m a pizza person. I grew up in a pizza-loving family, I married a fellow pizza person, and I’m grooming my almost-one-year-old daughter to be a pizza pipsqueak. You get it.

My husband’s from Chicago, and I grew up in New York—and one of our favorite arguments, typically held over a melty slice or two, is who does pizza better. Over the years, we’ve hit many a parlor—nationally and internationally—to try to settle the debate, once and for all.

But since entering parenthood last year, dining out has become more of a novelty than a weekly routine. And while I’ve been investing time in cooking my faves at home, pizza was the last frontier I had to cross. As much as I love pizza night, an at-home oven always felt like a hefty investment (and a hefty piece of equipment) for limited use, and I was doubtful whether it could meet my *very high* standards. So when I heard about the Ninja Wood-Fired Pizza Oven—which offers eight different cooking settings and functions just like the internet-favorite Ooni Pizza Oven, at a fraction of the price—my interest piqued.

After reading up on the Ninja oven, I decided to seize the summer sale (psst: it’s $99 off right now) and give it a try. It arrived just in time for a holiday weekend spent with friends and family who hail from Miami to Paris—with global, gourmet palates to match. After a very seamless unbox, plug in, and preheat process, the reviews were unanimous: Forget New York or Chicago—this oven will transport you straight to Italy.

The menu for our inaugural at-home pizza party was wide-ranging: pesto, veggies, and sausage; a seriously gooey pepperoni calzone; and a few on cauliflower crusts. Despite the different textures and ingredients, each one cooked evenly (and in less than seven minutes, once the oven had preheated). It took a bit of practice with the pizza peel to nail the transfer of dough into the oven—but after a few tries, we were firing up pies that were just the right combo of crispy, pillowy, a