Right after my friend hopped in the car she mentioned that today was the New York City Marathon. I found it a bit strange that my French friend was aware of this far away event, but I was happy to be reminded so early in the day that today was the day that a very special friend, Jennifer, was running those 26 miles in The Big Apple. Three thousand miles and six time zones away. Here we were heading out to join our walking group. As the group assembled in the local parking lot I noticed that another friend had an umbrella that mentioned the NYC marathon. He was unaware that today was the marathon and had grabbed that umbrella completely by chance.
Turns out that he had run the NYC Marathon in 1990 and was proud to state that France had the second highest participants after the U. S.
To top off all this strange marathon vibe, unbeknownst to us, there was an important running race being held on the hiking loop that we had selected for today’s outing.
I stood at the starting line and thought of the amazing contrast of what my friend Jennifer was going to encounter today in her grand undertaking. I felt sad to be so far away and unable to participate in some small way in her grand day. For kicks I took a few photos to send to her, hoping they would make her laugh. And then the runners started passing by and it hit me – I was supposed to be paying attention. All the mystic signals of this morning were to keep me in touch with my friend even if she didn’t know it. So here is my little way of showing her where I was during the early part of her run in a very big city, at a different time of day. There is no way to show the good whishes and encouragement that I sent over that great big gulf spanning distance, time, and culture.
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| Starting Line |
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| Security |
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| and they are off... |
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| over hill and dale |
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| No Mushroom Picking |
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| signage |
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| herds of on lookers |
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| The finish line is just under the church. |
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| almost there |
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| celebration area |
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Winner's interview
and here is Jen's grand accomplishment!!! FINISH 01:17:37 PM 3:31:12.00 01:17:37 PM 08:04.00
| Name | Marker | Bib | Gender | City | Country | |
| Jennifer |
| 17713 | F |
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5 comments:
Jen told me that the cherry on top was having friends waiting with an excellent table near the finish, at the local burger and milkshake shoppe. Congrats Jen! KH
that year, 1990-, Linda and I ran NYC. We saw a lot of French runners. Air France had a whole charter flight and some of the crew also ran it. I believe including the Captain
OK - I'm ready to go international... Bourdeilles, here I come!
Thanks so for the touching tribute SV. I'd run an ultra if it got me to the French countryside for a cool down walk with you & Jo-Jo.
Sending back much love to you and T
I wonder if the longing for a milkshake and a great big American hamburger would ever ever make me run a marathon?!!
From what I'm being told I might not even know that I was in NYC with all the different languages of the runners.
What an uncanny set of serendipitous events. 'Love this tale.
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