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Health & Fitness

Gotta Love the Marathon

I started going to the NYC Marathon when I was a teenager. However, we would never, ever step foot anywhere near the finish line. Instead, my dad would take my brother, my sisters, and me to the same spot every year; outside the gates of Green-Wood Cemetery on 4th Avenue; my grandparents and my Uncle Nicky are buried right on the other side of the gates. We would drive down 35th Street, park the car near the candy factory and run across 4th Avenue before the motorcycle cops and runners reached that point. The weather was sometimes blustery, sometimes rainy but we tried to go each year. It was yet another tradition instilled by my dad.

I try to carry on that tradition; over the years I’ve gone with my husband, my own kids, my mom and mother-in-law. We always say we’re going to bring my son’s cowbell and we always forget. Today, my husband and I left church a few minutes early and rushed over to our usual spot. The elite runners had long since gone by but we were in time for the second and third waves and those are the runners who I really want to see. I spent the next hour and a half clapping and cheering nonstop. My cheers are pretty simple and usually go something like, “YOU CAN DO IT!!” and “LOOKING GOOD!” and “GO (insert name) GO!”  I think the runners really appreciate it and I cannot tell you how happy I am when someone gives me a thank you or a thumbs up. The marathon is a veritable United Nations; there are teams of runners from all over the country and all over the world. When I spot a group of foreign runners, I change my cheers to “Viva Italia,” Viva Mexico,” or “Vive la France!”  

There are always lots of characters running. This year I saw the Blues Brothers, a juggler, a number of guys dressed as Superman, a couple wearing chicken hats, the usual Statue of Liberty, and my annual favorites, the British brassiere ladies (who, yes, run in their glitzy bras usually sans shirts). Those ladies have some real spunk and have been earning money for breast cancer research since 1998.

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I cheer for them all but I must say it’s a little hard to cheer for someone who is already struggling as they pass us (we’re only at Mile 5 or 6). If they are having a hard time so early in the race, I think it might be better that I say a little prayer for them instead.

Music plays an integral part in keeping the runners pumped up. I remember one year there was a mariachi band playing on a fire escape across from us. Many runners nowadays wear earbuds which provide their own music but I can’t help but think that they’re tuning out all the energy around them. This year’s marathon featured some really great bands playing just the right kind of adrenaline-boosting music along 4th Avenue (think "Eye of the Tiger"). On the corner of 34th Street, there was a band called Fifth Down who, in between numbers, were kind enough to invite some of the local kids to the mike. The kids sang a rousing rendition of the ABC song and B-I-N-G-O which cracked up spectators and runners alike.

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I absolutely love the NYC Marathon and I love the feeling I get when I see that mass of humanity pouring through my home borough. It makes me feel good to see all different kinds of Brooklynites: old-timers, hipsters, immigrants with their young children, all taking on the role of goodwill ambassadors. I am proud to carry on the tradition set by my dad and proud to represent my beloved Brooklyn.

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