Race Report: from Harriet Kang

That's Harriet on the left. Here is her story of serendipity...

The weather was perfect, and although I don't have an official finish, I
did have a very interesting day!

I was walking this year with a couple of my Achilles ladies. We hit the
half marathon point at 3:57, right on schedule. But then we came up on
an 83 y.o. guy, Sheldon, at around 14 miles who'd been tripped at the
start (by his son's foot) and had a nose that looked like hamburger. He
also banged his knee. I sent my friends off without me (they finished
in 8:23 - the course limit is 8:30) and stayed with this poor guy, who
really wanted to finish. He was actually an experienced marathoner, and
this was his 11th NYCM). At that point he wasn't too much slower than
my group, but I didn't think that it would be safe for him to be
hobbling through the Bronx and Harlem after dark alone. Of course we
were walking more and more slowly, and then we had to stop and find a
quiet place so that he could say his afternoon prayers (I pointed out
that we were on the Upper East Side, and seeing religious guys praying
would not be all that unusual, but he preferred a little parklet on a
side street). My brother Shelton met us in the Bronx and walked with
us. I handed Sheldon off to his son who met us at around 23 miles, sent
Shelton of at the 72nd St transverse to find my checked bag, and then
ran to the finish, but by that time (9:07 by my watch, a little before 7
PM) the mats were already gone.

Sheldon had quite a story. He had started running at 73 yrs because a
shoulder injury stopped his playing racquetball. He and his wife (6
years younger) had done many marathons together. He lost her 2 years
ago when she went out for a solo training hike in preparation for the
Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim hike, and died of heatstroke. They found her
under a tree holding her water bottle. The feelings of guilt were
palpable (he'd been at work, and the friend who was supposed to hike
with her had to cancel out). Well after hearing this story, there was
no way that I was going to leave him on the course!

Then Sheldon mentioned that he'd had trouble at last year"s NYCM because
of the heat, almost passing out. A very nice lady found him and helped
him walk to the finish. She'd been an interesting lady who'd run a
marathon on a ship in Antarctica. She came from Indiana and had been a
librarian. Now she worked for a race organization and had something to
do with the marathon in San Diego. Oh, and she had hyperthyroidism....
Yep, this was the same guy that Karen Bingham had helped out last year!
I immediately called Karen on my cell phone, but she didn't get back to
me until after I'd left Sheldon. But Karen, Sheldon says "HI!" and will
be forever grateful for your help last year - he couldn't say enough
nice things about you!

Sheldon was fun to talk to and I enjoyed our walk (the last couple of
miles I was holding him by the arm because it was hard for him to see
the cobblestones), but I think that his son (who finished in 5 hours)
was thoughtless in not coming back out to meet his father. If he'd met
his father at the 20.5M point (the 138th St station on the #6 line), I
could have run in for an official finish. On the other hand, I already
had a good marathon at St. George, and since I don't have a real NYCM
this year, I'm going to register for the Country Music Marathon in April.

Harriet

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