Race Report

New York City Marathon

Sunday, November 4, 2001

Thanks to all those who put up with my endless on-the-scene reports yesterday! I know the email subject lines weren't exactly descriptive and that I didn't go into a lot of detail but it's a little hard on the Blackberry keyboard. For those who asked me questions along the way NOT related to the NYCM, sorry if my answers were less than adequate but I was a little busy, ya know? :o) Yesterday, there was NOTHING more important than the Marathon!

Anyway, this was the most exhausting and by far the most exciting supporting event I have been involved in so far! And the addition of Ron sending their progress updates via ipager really made the whole thing complete! The only way I could have had a closer experience is if I had run it with them myself!!! And this time, Instead of an orange hat, I wore my really neat orange and pink tie-dyed hat that Lauren Clark made for me when I went to Columbus. I must say that I looked really cute in it!!! HAH! The Orange in the hat was definitely flattering on me, if I do say so myself. HAHAHAHAHA!!! I just crack me up!!! :o)))) THANKS LAUREN FOR MY REALLY COOL HAT!!! It is becoming an encounter signature thing very quickly!

Saturday night, Daniel organized a wonderful encounter dinner! The food was delicious and there was so much of it. Ron and I sat at different tables (Harriet and I, et al, were late - what else is new?) so we passed email back and forth - which was tons of fun since I LOVE EMAIL! :o)) I won't mention names because I will forget someone but there were deads and penguins alike and everyone mixed and had a great time! Doug and Ryan were there, too! All smiling as ever. Ryan had not signed up for the bus over to Staten Island so we were teasing him that with his military training, he could easily swim the East River over (not many dead bodies floating in the East River like the old days) and I reminded him that there were no mines in there, at least. He smiled and looked a little bit concerned on how he was going to get over to the start. But it all worked out well in the end. Doug was his usually smiley happy self! And Daniel sat way over yonder so I couldn't really talk to him! :o( Abe greeted me with a big hug. This time, he was NOT sweating and he had on a shirt!! It was a DRY hug from ABE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this time. HAHA!! And Glenn had arrived that morning from a long overnight bus ride from Toronto just to be with us and scream support the people who were running!!!

Sunday morning, we got up LATE (What else is new??) at 5:30 am, and ran out the door (literally). I was actually up at 5am but it was pitch black and I thought it would be amusing to see what would happen if I didn't wake them up, so I went back to bed and laid there! :o) Don't even ask why but we were up very late because Last Minute Louise (Harriet) had me ironing - which I don't even do for myself at home!!! We broke traffic laws going into the City to meet with Alan Leggatt - one of the intrepid Hot Flashes - and one of the nicest and funniest people I have had the pleasure to meet during my long association with Harriet. Due to an Injury, Alan couldn't do the marathon but would a Hot Flashes athletic supporter with Shelton and Linda Kang. We dropped Harriet off and went to breakfast - this was around 8:30. We strategized and decided to take the subway and to get to Times Square where we were going to meet up with Milt and Ken F. We got there about 9:15am. Shortly thereafter Milt walked up. Turns out that he had made it to the ABC studios and managed to get himself onto the Today show - did anyone see him?? So that was his 15 seconds of fame in NYC where everyone can be famous - at least for 15 seconds!! :o) Ken came up and we headed to the first meeting place around mile 3.5. (Shelton, Linda, and Alan peeled off to go to Mile 8 to meet with the Hot Flashes who had a 2 hour head start on the rest of the field.) We made it there just in time to see the lead pack of men - about 15 of them and right behind them were the second pack of men. At this point the red, blue, and green starts had not merged - this wasn't going to happen until just after mile 8. Anyway, they were on the right side of the road. About 10 minutes later, the lead pack of women and then everyone else. They got so close!!! Then we saw ABE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He looked good, of course! And he saw us and waved. We also saw him at Mile 8 and of course, he was running with some pretty young fast thing! :o)

We waited at every checkpoint to make sure that everyone went by. I met Carol from Germany who had drawn an awesome penguin on the back of her shirt! We hooked up with Ellen from Brooklyn and Peggy Harper from NC at Mile 8. She had to leave Sunday afternoon and I was so BUMMED OUT!!!! STUPID AIRLINES!!! :o) But I will be seeing her at the Battleship Half Marathon over Thanksgiving holidays.

You all heard the rest pretty much from the road. Ron and I were emailing each other from the beginning. Abe called me and we had a very nice chat as they all waited together on Staten Island. Everyone looked great! Jorge and Silvia ran by (complete with pink hat on Jorge) and since I have only seen him twice in person, I didn't figure out who he was until he had run by the waterstop!! ARG!!! Jorge, you looked just terrific out there!!! Welcome back from your trip and congratulations!!

There was a fireman who walked the whole thing in his complete fireman's outfit. There were 3 of the Blues Brothers. There was a Rhino named Robin who had considerably slowed down by mile 23. :o( Lots of NYPD and FDNY marathon team members and lots of regular runners had on NYPD and FDNY gear in tribute to those who fight for us (both lost in the fight and still fighting the fight...)

Everytime Ron, Doug, Daniel and Ryan came by, there were LOTS of (wet) hugs and pictures. They had such smiling faces! I will try to post some pictures once I get my photoshop software loaded and get the pictures to fit on a screen. Ron had a shirt with his name and Charlotte, NC on it. Daniel looked mighty spiffy in his matching yellow Fila running outfit!!! And boy! Do they know how to enjoy a marathon!! And cute little Ryan - Ron's nephew looked like he was doing a great job holding his own! He didn't even look tired - not even at mile 23! At each meeting, I looked forward to the everyone's hugs and more pictures!!! At mile 18, I got an email from Ken Weissman who wanted to know where I was! He was at 1st and 97th. I was at 1st and 96th!!! I told them to stay there and that we would walk up a block and meet them! It was so good to see them!!!!! We hung out for a while and on the way up to the 23mile marker, we ended up losing Milt and KenF, because we had to stop and get a camera and some gatorade, etc. and Milt had to get up to meet Cher who was on a faster pace.

At mile 23, this woman out of the blue asked me if I was Julia Kim. I was NOT pleased. WHO IS THIS??? I tried to smile sweetly (that is difficult for me. :o)) and asked who she was. It turned out that she is TESS who had joined the list some time back for a very short while and then had to unsub! She said she saw the Penguin hats on people. Then she saw my hat with the ORANGE in it. :o) Then she remembered hearing my reports on the blackberry from New Orleans. And when KenW posted about the web cam at the Oyster Bar in New Orleans during one of my business trips out there, she had actually gone out to the website and seen me. She still wasn't sure it was me until I whipped out my blackberry in front of her to send you guys the latest reports. Then, she was sure it was me and had to say something. It's a small world - in the middle of Manhattan in the middle of a marathon with a million spectators and 35000 runners, we meet! It's a small small world, ya know?

After mile 23, we said goodbye to Ken and Ellen. Glenn and I crossed to the other side of Central Park via the 96th Street transverse and walked down a little over a mile to meet up with Harriet at the family meeting area. We were going to dinner at Dougies. Ron email me but it was so crowded and crazy at the finish, we couldn't go back. Also people were waiting at Dougies and I am come with Harriet, blah blah blah... Ron couldn't really join us since he also had separate commitments after the marathon. Sigh... it was so good to see him again - it doesn't happen enough.

Daniel decided to go home and rest. And Doug Shearer and his smiling happy face also went separately with Ron. Ken F had to leave to go back home to Connecticut and he wrote me an email letting me know he had gotten home safely! Phew!

After dinner, Cher called from her hotel. She and Milt were going to eat steak - they ended up at City Grill. We walked up there and met them for dessert. Lauren called on the various our cell phones and looked things up on the web for Harriet. It was so much fun - we are trying to convince her to come and run NYCM - perhaps next year she will make the lottery. I will be out there next year, barring any more unforeseen injuries like this past July!!! And I will be experiencing what Ron, Doug, Daniel, Harriet and the Hot Flashes, Ryan, Abe, etc etc etc experienced yesterday. And I think that I will have my Blackberry with me, too!!! :o))

On a somber note, we drove by the Port Authority with the VERY LONG board that has the pictures and description of those lost in the 9-11 tragedy. It was a sad moment. Then on our walking around, we saw another long board with the same. Another sober moment. The significance of the running of the marathon in the face of the 9-11 tragedy was with me the whole day. I made sure to thank every Fireman and Policeman I could. The bridges had extra security on them and they were spot checking all vans and larger vehicles - causing considerable backups at times but there were no honks and irate drivers waiting in line. Watching and cheering, I saw so many countries represented! Norway, Sweden, Japan, Korea, China, France, Spain, Mexico, Italy, France France France :o), Denmark, Africa, Kenya :o), Portugal, Canada, Greece... And able bodied atheletes ran together with Achilles from all over the world and through the U.S. and Canada. All manner of people - rich, old, young, poor, employed, unemployed - all manner of religions - Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindu... ran together. And the same stood shoulder to shoulder, screaming and clapping and applauding... For everyone, regardless of any personal ideologies and preferences, they were there together, running the same race and winning - each and every one of them who may have been in Manhattan yesterday was a winner! And in the face of the terrorists who would do away with this and everything else we believe in, we defiantly ran and enjoyed ourselves. It was right that the marathon went on. It was right that we stood and ran together. And it was a very good day.

email comments to Julia at Julia.Kim@fmr.com