Running for Your Life: The Marathon

There is nothing ordinary about it.

The New York City Marathon

Think of it as the world’s largest

Outdoor church,

Or synagogue,

Or mosque,

Or sacred native space.

I’ve been to a few marathons in my time, including the granddaddy of them all:

In Boston

But in New York, on the first Sunday in November, the most unifying of nontribal events occurs,

A road race, of all things.

On Sunday (Nov. 5) I went to “worship” on Fourth Avenue at 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

That part of Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn marks the 7-mile watering station of the race.

The look on so many faces at that early point in the marathon: ecstatic, joyful, proud.

And those of us watching, urging on the runners, were no less a part of the sacrament.

For one blissful half-hour, during the weekend marking the first anniversary of the Election Day

Victory of Donald Trump, I drank in the wonder that human beings can be capable of.

These runners before me didn’t come to win prizes, most, on their list of priorities, would rank the goal of getting a Personal Best time way down near the bottom.

Or so it seemed to me.

Who can forget their first New York City Marathon? Either as runner or spectator?

Comes a place, deep inside, where real, positive change is possible.

Next: Running for Your Life:  Gowanus Sharp Shooters !