Famous Ankles

This weekend’s events were running and running and running and some minor stuff.  Even when it wasn’t running, it seemed to be about running.  Three major events:  the Olympic trials for the marathon, the New York City Marathon, and the International Fun Run.

Right after the Olympic trials, I started walking to the East Side to get into position for the International Fun Run, a NYC Marathon predecessor.  It’s more of a party than a run and is only a couple of miles long.  It starts at the United Nations, goes to Sixth Avenue via 42nd Street, and then cuts up to 54th Street or so.

As I was nearing 42nd street, I began to hear a roaring sound.  For me, that means and interesting sound and something I have to check out.  And there it was, a big rally at the New York Public Library.

When I first got into position, the group was chanting and doing “the wave”.  Just as I crossed the street, it broke up.  It turned out to be a large group of French runners.

They were in town for the NYC Marathon, but were also participating in the Friendship Run.

The coolest part about this crowd was a minor event that I couldn’t capture on film.  Right after the above picture, there was a siren from Fifth Avenue and a firetruck passed by en route to an emergency of some sort.  The whole crowd broke out in a roar of cheers for the firefighters and they returned the waves of the crowd.

I fell in behind the group as I was heading in the same direction. 

After a couple of blocks, I cut across and ran into a group of Japanese runners also heading to the run.

As you can see, some were taking a very lighthearted approach to the run.  But no one took it more lightly than these guys.

You can’t see it very well, but the guy on the left had a joke arrow going through his head.  There were actually six in this group, but the other three were caught by the light.  I never got a good picture of the arrow.

Another block or two later, I ran into a group of Swedes.

The crowds kept flowing in and around to the UN.  I knew I was going to view the run, but I wanted to do it from a slightly different viewpoint.

But, that’s another post.

-H

This entry was posted on November 4, 2007 at 8:08 pm and is filed under Events, Manhattan, Mid-town. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.