On Friday morning, I went for a run along the Hudson and saw that the starting and finish lines for the swimming portion of the NYC triathlon had been set up. I considered going to watch it on Saturday, but got distracted and ended up not going. Good thing, because as it turns out it wasn't Saturday, it was today (Sunday). Four miles of this morning's run through Central Park were alongside the track that the triathletes were plodding along. I generally run counterclockwise around the Park - no real reason, just a habit - and the runners were going clockwise, so I got to really check them out (and not feel bad if they were going faster than I was).
It was about 9:00 when I got there, and the athletes I saw would have finished the biking and swimming portions. Many of them, though surprisingly not all of them, were pretty impressive physical specimens ranging from people in their 20's to people in their 60's. They all looked pretty wiped out. It's in the low 80s at the moment, and most of the run through the Park was shaded, but it's about a million percent humidity and I could tell they were feeling it, particularly on the hills. I ran past several volunteers wielding hoses, which looked like a pretty good idea to me.
I saw several pairs of runners with what looked like thin plastic tubing roping their waists together leaving only about a foot or two between them, and two more guys who were each gripping an edge of what looked like a circular bungee cord; I'm guessing this was a physical manifestation of the whole teamwork/partnership mentality. I also saw a sighted guy escorting a blind man: they ran arm in arm, with the blind man just slightly behind. I wonder how they managed the biking portion. One girl ran with her arm in a sling, and just watching her made me tired. I saw 9 amputees, just one of which was a man missing an arm. The other 8 were missing at least one leg; one guy had lost both legs above the knee. They all had those cool prosthetic legs with the bendy, shock-absorbing base. One woman had put a shoe on her prosthetic leg to match the one on her foot. I also saw 7 paraplegics rolling themselves along in aerodynamic athletic wheelchairs with three wheels (two behind, one in front). I can't imagine the upper body strength that must take, particularly going up the hills.
I found this picture on a website created by a woman who lost a leg to necrotizing fasciitis (yes, that is the correct spelling) but wanted to be able to continue to run as she had before her amputation. She says that an above-the-knee amputee typically uses 80% (80%!!!!) more energy while running than an able-bodied runner. Sheesh. My admiration for these runners just quadrupled.
There were coaches along the sidelines, and a surprising number of people, who were obviously not entrants, jogging alongside friends, chatting and providing encouragement. I watched one woman and her young son jog a few meters with a man before the wife dropped off. The son kept going a few more meters until the woman was able to persuade him to stop, too. I always like watching runners recognizing their supporters on race day - the exhaustion evaporates instantly for a few seconds as both parties frantically wave and beam at each other.
I will run the Queens Half-Marathon in six days, and have been complaining steadily to anyone who will listen about how hot and miserable it's going to be. I feel a bit better now, though. If a double amputee can do a full triathlon in this weather, surely a persnickety yet able-bodied 27-year-old can handle a half-marathon.
Follow-up to this post:
While checking my Facebook page this morning (which was necessary for, uh, work), I happened to see that a former Catie, Henry Hagenbuch, was a top ten finisher in the tri! Henry was two or three years behind me at Cate and we used to chat about running a lot, as two of the more competitive members of the cross country team. These days he's a pretty elite professional triathlete and so I guess it makes sense that he'd have been competing yesterday, but I didn't even think about it. Wish I'd realized - it would have been fun to see him! Here's a link to his website (www.gohhgo.com) and blog (http://gohhgo.blogspot.com) if you want to check him out. Not only is he competing, he's modeling too! Goodness. I think K-Swiss is his big sponsor.
No comments:
Post a Comment