The post below was written in the aftermath of Sandy. On the 2 year anniversary I thought I'd repost it:
There was no New York City Marathon this year. Hurricane Sandy effectively wiped it out. I wanted them to run. I'm selfish that way. I don't run. I think my lifetime maximum for running was a toxic 5k that began and ended at the Brooklyn Brewery. However, I always look forward to the marathon. In the 1970's, my grandmother, who had just had her hip replaced, and my best friend with two severely sprained ankles joked about running. I joke about running every year.
I go to the local pub on Saturday night and tell people I am carbo-loading as I drink my beer. After watching the race (on TV), I go back to the pub, it is Sunday after all and there is football to be watched, and I tell them I just finished the race. This year, sitting in my cold, candle-lit apartment, I expected to have electricity back and I was again looking forward to watching the marathon. I wrote a poem about it below the fold. There were inspiring stories about runners who instead helped people who needed it. There was an equally inspiring story about a legally blind woman who managed to enter another marathon being run that day. Anyway, enjoy:
Run, New York
Run the marathon
Run, because it’s what we do
Run, because we’re the city that doesn’t sleep and even when Mom Nature turned out the lights, we took out a flashlight and read a book under the covers hoping she wouldn’t notice
Run, because we can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time, or in this case, run and chew
Run to remember the people we lost
Run to let the world know we’re going to rebuild the houses we lost
Run for the FDNY, NYPD and DSNY
Run for FEMA and the Emergency Management offices of the several states
Run for ConEd, for PSE&G, for JP&L of CP&L and all the others pulling marathons to get the electricity running again
Run because we may be without electricity, but we still have power
Run for those who may only have this 1 chance to run
Run for those who used this date to motivate themselves through recovery from injury
Run for the bodegas open by candlelight figuring out sales tax the old-fashioned way, on a calculator
Run, not because it is easy, but because it is hard
Run because the most glorious sight in all sport is the human traffic jam across the Verrazano Narrows bridge
Run, because we’re New York City Goddamit
We ran after Ford told us to Drop Dead
We ran with Ground Zero still smoldering in 2001
Put down the scissors- and Run