Marathon

Sun Sept 24, 2023

I’ve never paid much attention to marathons. Actually, I’ve paid exactly no attention to marathons, despite the fact that a couple of my step-kids participate in at least partial marathons or triathlons, or something — it’s all foreign to me.

But today was the day of the Berlin Marathon, and it was passing within a couple of blocks from here, so we all went out to watch. What an event!

We could hear the drums from a block away, and we could see the crowds. We found a place along the curb and set up with our noise makers and a sign for a family friend running the race. It looked to me like the whole neighbourhood had gathered, not so many people that we were layers thick at the side of the road, but enough that there was little space to spare at the curb. When we arrived, the wheelchair part of the race had just about wrapped up, and we were waiting for the runners. We were about at the half-way point in the race, and this was a little less than an hour in.

We knew the first runners were approaching by the roar of the crowd up the street. They were led by cyclists clearing the way, motorcycles, a vehicle mounted with a camera. They fairly flew by, after already running more than 20 km. This is unfathomable to me, but there they are.

This first cluster was followed by several more, each protected by a flank of cyclists. I was waiting for the women, which Ezra predicted would be along in about 10 minutes.

I almost missed her when she came. I didn’t know to look for the lead car, the motorcycles, the camera car, but I managed to catch a very short clip of her, quite by accident. She was lead by three men, like a protection squad, so that we couldn’t tell that our first woman had come until she was past us.

This is Tigst Assefa, an elite runner from Ethiopia, and today she smashed the world record, beating the previous record by more than 2 minutes. And we saw her doing it! I grabbed a frame from my fleeting video, and here she is, as relaxed as can be.

An article about her: Tigist Assefa shatters women’s marathon record

I think marathons might be my new passion. No, not running them, jeez, I can’t run one kilometre, never mind 42. But I’m kind of thrilled, now, by this particular athleticism. It brings me to tears really. And I realized, as I watched the running masses following the elites, that every one of them is extraordinary. Yep, tears.