Let's Run This Weekend?
Yes, you read that right.
I love marathon day almost as much as I hate the idea of running a marathon. A bit of this is misplaced frustration at how difficult (and usually, expensive) it is to get a bib. Unlike most events, and most marathons in other cities not named Boston, you can’t just sign up for the NY marathon. You have pay to run in NINE New York Road Runner events in a single calendar year OR have already proven that you can run a marathon very fast OR have already run it 15 times OR apply to be chosen to raise money for a specific sanctioned charity. You could also win a literal lottery.
I guess the restrictions are there for a reason, since about 50,000 people line up at the start in Staten Island each year. And what a scene they cause! Until last November, I lived just off Lafayette Ave, a gradual uphill stretch that appears pretty early in the race. Those pacing their marathon properly look pretty comfortable at this point. They had better! If you had stopped at my former front door, you’d still have more than a full half marathon to go!
You’d be forgiven for wanting to take a minute to stop and just soak in the atmosphere. The Fort Greene - Clinton Hill - Bed Stuy corridor is a notorious riot on marathon day. People go nuts. The same neighbors who spend most of the year shaming dogs for peeing on dead patches of grass bring 3-feet tall tower speakers out of their basements and proceed to play the worst music in the world for 9 hours straight. (They always seem to have time to thank the cops for … standing there.) The wait at Choice Market for a BLT balloons from a usual 45 minutes (longer than it should be, but absolutely worth it) to well over an hour. One year, a group of what I would assume are recovering drum line geeks gathered right underneath my bedroom window with a drum kit, several sets of cymbals, a vuvuzela, and a banana costume.
Maybe I’m just jealous. I don’t really like the idea of having to apply to raise money for charity just for the privilege of absolutely destroying my body for five hours to prove … something?? to someone??? But I would be pretty fun to run past someone in a banana costume absolutely screaming in my face.
That leads me to this bit of personal news. I will be … attempting to win a raffle to get entry this weekend. I just found out about the Strava Bibaway. To enter the contest, you have to run over three segments of the route—the finishing section in Central Park, the Willis Bridge that goes into the Bronx, and the part of Lafayette that passes my old apartment—sometime this Sunday. The company is giving away four race bibs, plus some Strava branded gear and a pair of race ready New Balances.
I think it’d be demented, but in the fun way, to run the marathon this year. So I’m going to try to do all the segments Sunday evening? Wanna join? Just reply and let me know. Oh, and also follow me!!!
