Lots happened yesterday too, of course. I keep getting home too destroyed to even think about eating. Hard to think I’ll be doing a marathon in two days with all that is happening. I spent a big chunk of the day yesterday at the Media Center. Here are some pics:
NYRR On the Run being taped
Sharon Cherop
Nina… rockstar. We talked about old times, when Fred started the club, stuff from the Run for Your Life movie… Love her!
Jason Hartmann, 4th in Boston. I am ready to make a prediction here…!
Julie Culley, who was very emotional about Sandy. Here is her flotrack interview, and somehow I am in the background the whole time..!
Finish line being set up.
Then I headed to the expo, to see what was happening, pick up on the mood of the athletes, and yeah, get my bib too of course.
You gotta travel with gold right? No trains, no problem! I had been walking around the day before all over the city, miles and miles. I was too tired!
I saw everyone at the expo. It wasn’t as crowded as it usually is given that a lot of people haven’t made it into town, but the mood was around a ”let’s do this thing”. It is a tough week for a lot of people. This guy from Brooklyn said it took him two hours to get there to pick up his bib. People that still have no power but came to the expo because they were sick of being couped up, depressed, and needed to get out of the house. People who needed the marathon to get their heads on something else. You know how it is. Just a bit of running can make you feel better about everything, no matter how messy the situation is.
There is of course, all the people who think the marathon shouldn’t happen. And yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I’d love for everyone to have an informed opinion instead of reacting out of …desperation?, but this was the mayor’s decision and he has more information to make this decision than all of us together, so I am going with that. If he had decided not to, I would have respected that decision too.
Then, there are runners saying “it doesn’t feel right to run”, then don’t do it, it is quite simple. We all have to do what seems best for each one of us given our set of mental rules and there is no need to bash everyone else for their decisions. Live and let live. I come from a third world country where these situations where people don’t have power, or food, or a place to live is very common, every day, every single day, so I have been faced with these situations on a daily basis and grew up in similar situations. I am doing the marathon. The mayor decided it’s on. Period. And I do believe he has a good reason to make that decision.
And yes, I also do believe the marathon will bring a smile, a nice distraction, and a lot of money, to a lot of people who have had a rough rough week.
Anyway, I didn’t want to go into that but I guess that just happened. This is a blog about running after all. I plan to run, if the mayor lets me, as always, to celebrate life. That is what my running is always about, moreso in a crappy week like this one.
Growing up I kept being told (when I wanted to go to some party everybody was going to and not me, or when my grades where better), don’t worry about what the others do, just about what you do. Live and let live.
Heartbeats are important, let me just tell you a story about that one day 😉 HA, like you haven’t heard THAT a hundred times!
Thursday Report, NYCM still on! Jason Hartmann, Nina Kuscsik, Julie Culley, etc
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