Normally, I don't get real excited about marathons. When I lived in the Twin Cities, I knew it was the first weekend in October. But that was about it. I never went to see it, despite having brothers and sisters running in it. I'm just not that big of a fan of running. And that was OK. Then I moved here.
New Yorkers have a tendency to make a big deal out of things. They have HUGE parades. It's hard not to mention the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and New Years Eve in Times Square. Any time there's an 'event' in or around the city, it really does come to life. Thankfully, there are a lot of events here and the city comes to life an awful lot. It was amazing to be here during the US Open tennis tournament and see how many people in this city actually care about tennis. During that month, everyone cares about tennis.
The ING NYC Marathon is one of these events. There has been extensive media coverage about it, not to mention the advertising one sees almost everywhere. We are expecting 47,000 runners to run 26.2 miles through the 5 boroughs and end up about 3 miles away from me down in Central Park. The course looks phenomenal. There will be about 3 million spectators along the route, joined by about 130 bands. The east side of the city will pretty much be shut down most of the afternoon to traffic. It is an amazing event. We even had fireworks in Central Park last night!
And all of that is really cool. And I'm going to watch the marathon, just like 2,999,999 other New Yorkers. But I'm watching it for a very special reason. My brother, Jim, and his wife Karla, along with four of their friends from back in Minnesota will be running in the NYC Marathon this year. It will be Jim's 20th marathon and he is very excited. And I am excited for him.
The entourage got here on Thursday night. They took public transportation (yes, M60 bus) from LaGuardia. They are staying very near Columbus Circle on the south end of Central Park. And they've been busy since they got here! I was able to meet up with them when I got home from Seattle last night. I met them at Columbus Circle. We walked down to Times Square. It's only my opinion, but if it's your first time in New York City, you really do need to go to Times Square. We put our name in at Tony's on 43rd and Broadway, walked back up to Rockefeller Center, then back down to Tony's for a GREAT dinner (it was fantastic food and even better than Jim and I could sit and have a private conversation and get caught up), then back to where they are staying. It really was fun.
Today, they did a couple of visitor things. They went to the 9/11 Memorial. Their word is that it's going to be a very special place when it's all done. I have yet to go to the Memorial itself, but have been down to the site a few times. From there they went to (what the ladies convinced Jim) Chinatown. Magically, Canal Street beckoned. Shopping was done. They called me as they were walking to Grand Central to let me know they were on the way. Some hurried last minute cleaning was done, and I had visitors! We went to the Metro Diner for supper, then they went back to get their gear ready for tomorrow and do some high quality resting and zoning out.
I plan on seeing them in the race a couple of times tomorrow. Hopefully when they come into Manhattan around 59th Street and 1st Avenue, then again somewhere in Central Park. Once the race is over, we'll meet again for dinner and kicking it a little bit. I am really looking forward to it!
The #8 train is rolling! And trying to find a track. One of these days, one will appear. Until then, it's going to roll along and keep looking...
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