This morning I walked the dog in Central Park around the area of the finish line knowing full well
that 40k plus people are standing in the cold on Staten Island on the far side of the Verrazzano Bridge. I made it home in time to watch the actual starts in the warmth of indoors, egg bacon and cheese in hand, a hot coffee. My favorite marathoning. Two hours and 9 minutes from now.. someone will cross the finish line I was standing next to earlier this morning. That would be 26.2 miles with a sustained speed of 5 minutes per mile. That is fast. Very fast.
The numbers around the marathon are staggering, so too is the amount of structure involved in it's undertaking. Keeping 40k runners going in the same direction all day long takes years of experience on the part of the organizers. There is a huge city built up around the finish line, as well as the starting line, food water, volunteers, employees, security, communications, power, cell towers, television, medical support, crowd control, runner support, signage, timing systems, cleaning crews, sanitation crews, and everything the metropolis of NY has to throw at it.
But all this pales in comparison to the truckloads of great will and sentiment that surrounds the event, A truly global moment like no other event in history. Nothing but human trial and big fat grinning toothy smiles over the entire length and beyond. There is nothing like seeing the wandering and exhausted runners after the finish, cloaked in a foil blanket, wondering how exactly to get home, or in fact where home is.
One of the most remarkable achievements of the entire day is the movement of 40k peoples belongings from the start line on that other island off the coast of North America to Central Park and the pick up point where everyone can retrieve their phones, jackets and whatever else it was they felt compelled to bring with them in the pre-dawn hours. UPS sends trucks out to Staten Island and later today, a convoy of 20 or so brown trucks will wind it's way back up the west side highway to Central Park, an impressive sight in and of itself.
We are at war. Lest we forget. Men and women are fighting a battle every day so that 40k people can feel free to run 26.2 miles on a brisk November day. So people like Meb Kelezighi born in Eritrea, living as an American in Mammoth Lakes California, can run alongside Haile Gebralassie from Ethiopia, cheer on Miner no. 12 in rousing choruses of Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le,as white yellow brown black and green can run as one in a marathon that levels the world to one humanity testing oneself on a hilly playing field, no mind to culture or politics.
Here Here to the Tea Party.
