I played the supporter role today, heading down to 1st Ave and 96th to watch the annual New York City Marathon - 30,000 runners selected by lottery from the far reaches of the globe, including my fellow MBS-Columbia exchanger Mark Mudie. In the near-freezing, yet surprising sunny, weather, I joined a small group of Columbia Business School students to support our 20 or so colleagues in the race. Mark has been training for a four hour finish, and I was really hoping to see him as he ran past, but 30,000 people makes for a big crowd, and I didn't find him amongst the sea of people running past our 18-mile mark position.
Heaps of the runners had written their names and country of origin on their shirts. Awesome idea. Adrian yells out "Go Aussie!" or "Go Paul!". Runner looks over, smiles, and raises a clenched victory fist, at this random stranger in the crowd.
There weren't nearly as many people dressed up for the run as you'd expect back in Sydney at the City to Surf, although I was amused to see a couple of guys dressed up as the Blues Brothers in black suits and hats. "Go Jake!" "Go Elwood!"
Here's an impressive "feature" of the race that will impress the IT geeks: each runner wore the obligatory number on their chests, but they also had a small electronic tag on their shoes. At each they passed each mile marker, their progress was recorded, and immediately updated on the official website. Perhaps if I'd had a mobile Internet device with me in the crowd, I would have known with more accuracy when Mark would have been running passed. As it turns out, he actually kept to his planned pace very well, finishing the race with a time of 4:00:53. Well done mate.
And the bit about the car pileup? Check out what happened on the freeway near Long Beach, California this morning. One would think they were filming a scene for the next Blues Brothers movie.
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