Although a bit humid and warm for the runners, this morning the NY Mini was held in Central Park. Since we have the wrong XY chromosomal structure, we weren’t allowed to participate (it’s a women-only race), but we did get to watch and cheer on some kick-ass women. Got to see an empty CPW for a change (see above); for those of you have run the NYC Marathon, this is exactly where you meet up with your loved ones and have leg cramps and mood swings and think to yourself how the hell am I going to make it home without climbing a step.
The race starts on Central Park West, goes north a bit, cuts into the park, and then runs clockwise back down and up to finish up near Tavern On the Green. We saw the start, ran up to the 4-mile mark to watch everybody come through, and hit the finish line for another spirited bout of over-the-top without-embarrassing-our-gender cheerleading.
Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands won the race in 32:10, her third winning 10K Mini in a row, and fourth overall. We’re lucky if we can drive our car a 10K distance in Manhattan in 32:10, so that’s really moving.
But as far as we’re concerned, there are lots more winners later in the race, and we got to cheer them on as they slowly made their way, some jogging and some walking. Women-only races are great, it always seems that the less-competitive participants are a little more appreciative of spectator support than their male counterparts in other races. Maybe that’s a wrong generalization, but several women we don’t even know offered their heartfelt thanks after the race, and it makes us all feel good and extra glad to be there.
Being an encouraging spectator can be really important, even when it seems the racers don’t notice you. We saw one acquaintance at mile 4, yelled our her name, and she just looked straight ahead, not responding. That’s cool, but we ran into her again after the race, and found out she was suffering through an injury. Her race concentration and mental battle with that injury kept her from communicating, but she sure heard the encouragement. So just because someone doesn’t respond, it doesn’t mean they aren’t hearing and listening. The encouragement briefly helped her get through the pain, and we got a hug for our effort. Everybody wins.
So the next time you have a chance to just watch a race, especially a tougher one (marathon, triathlon, ultra, etc.), get yourself out there and tell those hard-working people what a great job they’re doing. Besides, who knows better than you about what they’re going through? And when the day comes when you’re out there struggling, or feeling great, or just so-so, return the love, and it’ll come right back to you.
5 comments:
Great post - and SO TRUE about the people cheering. I try to tell them after the race how much it helps so they keep doing it for eveyrone. Sometimes it is hard to give an appreciative smile or thanks and those are the times you need the cheers the most.
Thanks so much for coming out. I tried to thank all the cheerers because it is so helpful to my morale. Central Park races are killer because there are like 5 people cheering, and 2 of them are like "Go Mom!" to every woman who passes.
It was humid, wasn't it? 79%, apparently. No wonder dumping water on my head felt like ass. Especially as it trickled to my ass.
It was awesome to run up an empty CPW.
Sounds like it was a fun race to watch! I played spectator to my girlfriend's first race, a trail 9k in the Santa Monica Mtns a few weeks back. It was the first race I'd attended without running, ever, and it felt great to cheer on everyone...particularly the part about sitting on my ass and drinking coffee while waiting.
Happy to be there, Renee, you're right, CP races have too few cheering folks. You need them most of all on Harlem Hill and in the northern part in general. I don't even see many race officials up there, and that's weird because it's not that far away, really. Not until you get to Engineer's Gate do you start to see a decent crowd.
It sure was humid, and judging by this morning's run, it still is.
And Rusty is right, one reward for the spectator is sitting around with a cup of coffee and waiting around, knowing you've got the day off !
new yorkers are just crazy when it comes to cheering. when i ran nyc marathon last year, they didn't let me walk!!!!!
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