Yesterday was the annual New York City Marathon, where over 10,000 runners participate. Let's check out some of the highlights:
We got to the half way point of the marathon, which is in Queens in the LIC, not too far from SML headquarters. We got there just in time... here is the clock truck which means the first pack of men are coming...
And there they are. The clock was at around 1:13 when they came by. The winner (Martin Lel) finished in 2:09:04. After this lead pack, there was about five minute of just random fast dudes (but not fast enough to hang with the top 10) coming by:
Lonely. I'm so lonely. I'm Mr. Lonely...In between all these occasional fast guys, I got distracted by the fascinating Comfort Inn Hotel here in the middle of nowhere.
I can't really accurately describe to you how... completely empty... this neighborhood is. The nearest supermarket is in Manhattan, on the other side of the Queensbridge. There are no stores, in fact... no video stores, business, bodegas. There is no homes nearby, either. No houses, apartments, anything. It's the LIC. There are abandoned warehouses, strip clubs (at least four), a Dunkin Donuts, and the bus stop for the special bus that takes people going and coming from Riker's Island (NYC largest prison). In fact, 3:00 AM on Sunday nights is when the prisoners get dropped off, if you are curious. So why is there a Comfort Inn here?
If this neighborhood is under the bridge, I guess the Comfort Inn is for visiting trolls? Hey, here's a cute girl and friends supporting the runners:
Ah, yeah. Let's hook The Marathon Man up with sweetness over here. Her friends also had some interesting signs:
I'm sure it was meant to be supportive and encouraging. It's just that sign seems slightly in bad taste considering what happened to marathon runner Ryan Shay at Saturday's U.S. Olympic trials in Central Park. Next up, about 7 minutes after the lead pack, is a small group of Nigerians. I like that they all dressed the same... they look like a team for real. I wanted to ask one of them if they knew this prince from Nigeria who stole my money, but they were moving too fast:
Next up, leading a pack that was about 10 minutes behind the leaders, was this douche in big sunglasses. He was too focused to even glance at us while we cheered him by name... what a douche: 
This douche was just a little slower than expected, finishing a little over his expected goal of somewhere between 2:28 to 2:32, having to settle for a 2:35 time. He placed just outside the top 50, disappointing his fans here at SML. Never the less, he's still in his early 20's, and by the time the trials for the 2012 Olympics roll by in 4 years he'll just be reaching the start of his peak. We'll be rooting for him.Soon afterwards comes the costumed runners, which are always entertaining and impressive. Seriously, how do you run a marathon in things like:
Running a marathon in a bowtie? Very cool idea, Paul Simon (the late Presidential candidate, not the backup singer to Art Garfunkle).It's gotta be hard to sweat when you are wearing a crown. Um, here's another dude with an outfit:
Running 26 plus miles seems scary enough for me. In suspenders? You're a tougher guy than me. What's up with his sneakers, though?This guy had the best hair of anyone in the race:
Homeboys hair seems inspired by Blanca in Street Fighter 2. I'm almost positive that he crouched down at one point, and electricity flow out of him.Orange hair was the rage at this year's marathon:
The NYPD uses so many police barriers during the NYC Marathon that they run out. So they have to get creative:
Here are three more pictures of the racers entering the bridge, from above:
Then we took a little break to sit down near the park. We sat under this statue, which can be found at the SE entrance to Central Park:
Interesting statue, very beautiful. Needs a paint job as the elements have been rough. But we never noticed until we sat underneath it how much detail the artist rendered into this statue. Notice the eye for details that went into sculpting the horse's parts as realistic as possible:
Juvenile, yes. But I felt teabagged by this statue, okay?Leave a comment
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Nah, Darren. I was looking for that guy, too. I'm guessing he wasn't in the first hour of marathons... he might have mighty good handle, but maybe he's a slow marathon runner!
I took in the marathon from my bedroom window on 5th Ave. Couldn't go anywhere because all the streets were blocked off, so i really didn't have a choice but to watch!
Still, my wife had recently run a half-marathon in Alaska, so I was a little interested, and now I gotta say that watching those cats up close was inspiring. Maybe the ol Poet can get in shape and run a marathon by the time I'm 50. Shid, I can't do no worse than Sean Combs did last year, or whenever he ran!
Anyway, we saw the leaders, male and female (plus the entourage of cops who preceded them - seriously, who would ever want to harm a distance runner?), we saw the orange haired dudes, the wheelchair racers, the bicyclists, the masses of runners who trailed the leaders by a good two hours but filled the entire width of 5th Ave and stretched for about 3 city blocks; shid, we saw er'body - we even saw the cat dribblin the rock (like I said, I LIVE on the route). But by the time these cats made it down to 5th, they were mad tired - shid, they put the "T" in tired.
Still, it was more fun than you'd think you could have watching skinny-but-flabby humans scantily clad and runnin ragged on a crisp November afternoon.
In case your wondering, that statue on 57th street is of Civil War General and Official Barnesgasm last name sharer, William Tecumsah Sherman. As a half-cuban and all Jew, I'm not related to Willy T, but we Shermans gotta stick together.
LP: I saw the race last year from 5th Avenue, over in Central Harlem, where my GF lives. I was going to watch it there this year, but my GF slept over in Queens, so I watched it here for the first time. The nice thing about living in East Harlem (over by 116th and 1st Avenue) for three years was that you could catch the marathon heading up 1st Avenue, then walk over to 5th and catch the same runners coming back from The Bronx. I caught P.Diddy two or three years ago, and Lance Armstrong last year.
It's a great spot to check the marathon.
Barnesgasm: Would that be the same General Sherman that's famous for burning Atlanta? Hmm, I didn't know that.
no sight of the basketall dribbling dude??