The inaugural Brooklyn Marathon was this morning. It was a lovely event with the feel of a local 5k. It was so good that I found myself wishing I'd run it.
Since my duties as a marshal did not keep me 100% occupied, I decided to multitask by trying to capture pictures of the amazingly badass Samantha as she ran the marathon. Samantha had run the Staten Island Half with me and managing to get the PR that eluded me. Then she ran the New York City Marathon on Nov 6th. Since that must have been a piece cake, she decided to run another marathon two weeks later.
The Brooklyn Marathon course was multiple loops of the park. Since she was set to run by my eight different times, I was sure I'd be able to get at least a good picture of her.
Here she comes, here she comes!
Go, Sam, go! She's on the left. Ok That was a little too far. Next loop I'll try to catch her closer.
Not Samantha. I waited too long to snap this one.
Then I tried to capture the PPTC posse. It was fun to cheer loudly whenever a PPTC member ran by but this group was particularly exciting. They were running in formation for the first few loops and they looked formidable.
Ok. They did look great. It's not my fault runner #245 blocked my view.
Then it was time to try to catch Samantha again.
There she is! On the far right. Still looking good on her nth loop.
There were several more attempts after that, but you get the idea. I did manage to get a picture of her where she's not only in the frame but also clearly visible. But that was after she was done running after having completed her second marathon PR in November.
It was the biggest and most fun block party in the city and not even a seriously compromised MTA scheduled would keep New York from mobilizing to cheer for its runners. I'd decided not to run it this year, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to participate.
First I'd be cheering, then running. Spectating on 1st Avenue where runners are starting to get tired but are still far from the finish line was inspiring. Strangers cheering for strangers. And then, I recognized some blue hair! It was Luau a fellow dailymiler. He stopped for a picture with my run twitter sign then went back to running.
I was cheering with a few members of our twitter book club, while cheering for other member of the same book club who were running. But cheering for the New York City Marathon is a needle in a haystack enterprise that fancy running tracking apps and congested networks haven't been able to conquer.
Most of the people I was hoping to cheer for must have run past me without my noticing. Fortunately I did manage to spot the one friend I was determined to find: Lizz. My dear Lizz. Running buddy, broomballer, fellow Ragnar and PPTC teammate and member of our local neighborhood brunching mafia was running her first marathon and I wanted to help.
I'd peeled off my outer layers until I was dressed as a runner, leaving my bag behind. When Lizz got to where we were I jumped onto the course and we ran/walked through Upper Manhattan and the Bronx and back to Manhattan. At some point deep in the Bronx when Central Park felt like an impossibly faraway place, Lizz said in a half whimper "this is hard."
If it were easy, everyone would do it, was my response.
Running with Lizz.
Back in Manhattan, Amy was able to catch me banditing with Lizz.
Check out Luau's video for a fun on the ground perspective of the New York City Marathon. Congratulations to everyone who ran yesterday!
