3 Days 'til NYC
This Sunday is the New York City Marathon. You’d think that this being my 17th consecutive NYC I’d be taking everything in stride, but once again I’m nervous as hell. Everything hurts, I can’t sleep, I think I’m getting a cold. I’m irritable. I don’t want to be at work. I’m not eating enough. I’m eating a lot of Halloween crap laying around my house.
I’m not even a registered entry either. The last several marathons I have volunteered with the Achilles Track Club. They’re an international organization that provides training and support for runners with disabilities. I’m a race guide, which means I’m paired up with an athelete with a disability, and I run with them, guide them, and if they can’t see (and can speak English or Spanish), I narrate the race. This year I’m paired up with Miyoko Tanaka, a 57 year-old woman flying in with the Japanese Achilles team. Miyoko goes slow I’m told, and can take as long as 10 hours to complete the race. She doesn’t speak English, and I don’t speak Japanese, but I’m up for the challenge. Most likely we’ll finish in darkness, long after the race is officially over, which means the NYPD will open up the streets to cars, the water tables will have long been folded up, and we’ll complete the race on the sidewalks.
Sitting in the Achilles tent on a typically freezing Staten Island each year, I’m always moved by the sight of marathoners strapping on prosthetic legs, pulling their bodies into wheelchairs, putting extra padding on crutches. When I see this, my own aches and pains go away, and I’m ready to roll. Sunday is going to be amazing.
-submitted by Alan K.
