New York Marathon

Since I was there and taking pictures, here they are. I can never resist the big crowd photo, so that's what really drew me there, knowing I'd get this view from the new Time Warner Center. They didn't come out great, but what the heck, here they are.



What's a shame is that a still photo can't capture what a total sense of seething life this whole scene was. All the little people are moving, so it's total hustle bustle. Huge tides of people washing one way and another. The still photos don't do it justice by freezing the motion.


As you can imagine, this image is a lot different when the scene is moving. Still silhouettes in front of a shifting tide of humanity.

As you can see by the high numbers on their shirts, I was there pretty far on into the event. Speakers along the route played fast-paced jazz.

What you really miss by not seeing this event in person is the role of the crowd. It's really like there are thousands of marathons all being run at the same time. Each event has it's own cheering crowd. Twice while I was standing along the route, people around me saw the person they knew in the race and exploded with elation. Runners wear their names on their shirts, and there are people there, lots of them, who clap for hours and cheer every single name that goes by. Literally. And if they don't have a name on their shirt, they'll cheer whatever logo you're wearing. "Go FBI!" "Nice job WhizzKidz!!" And the runners hear it and smile. I was standing basically at the 26 mile marker, and it still worked. I tried to get a shot of the back of the cheerer's head and the smiling runners but I couldn't get the shot.


What made me take this shot was all the faces looking one way and the passing runners facing the other way. It's a bit too washed out to really see it well. I need to learn how to do some tweaking with Photoshop. Anyway, it's still an interesting shot because I have never seen such a colorful crowd in New York. All that sportswear.

When you're finished running you find the letter of your name to regroup with your supporters. This was at 74th street and it was only up to D. People as far as I could see in both directions up and down Central Park West. Announcements over the PA were in three or four different languages.