Month: June 2009

  • June 30 I Could Not Ask For Anything Better

    This evening in Miami there is going to be a major league baseball game.  The Miami Marlins are going to host the Washington Nationals in Landshark stadium.  It is a  building which can host about 38,000 people.  There is every reason to suspect that there will be a great turnout this evening though there is […]

  • June 29 Food for the Soul

    They are not seen over at the 3100 mile race that much, but what they do in this little kitchen, a half mile away, is crucial to the well being of each and every runner.  The food they make with such love and selfless dedication is constantly present, even if they are not.  From the […]

  • June 28 Change Yourself Change the World

    He has traveled the furthest to come here.  His home in Perth Australia is just about the greatest distance it is possible to travel in one direction, from this gritty New York neighborhood, before you suddenly find yourself encircling the globe and heading back here once again.  The distance to Perth is 11,600 miles.  When […]

  • June 27 The Whole Area is Charged

    He is sometimes known as the 14th runner.  Swami Paramesh Ananda is a neighbor and friend of the race.  He can often be often found running around the course early in the morning, sometimes even before the setup crew has arrived.  He was away the last few weeks and seems happy to be back and […]

  • June 26 Can Only Happen Here

    At one time, in the early 1950’s, Jim Peters was the best marathon runner in the world.  This English distance great broke the world record for the marathon 4 times.  He was the first to run under 2 hours and 20 minutes.  In this race he ran 2:17 which was his personal best.  He was […]

  • June 25 Like Being On an Island

    From space the Google map can easily take in the entire course.   From this vantage you cannot see any pain, nor fatigue, nor heat, nor damp.  You are not aware of any challenge of any kind.  In fact, what you see from way up here is almost unreal.  The buildings and cars look like toys […]

  • June 24 Staying in Your Heart

    Over the past 10 days the constant drone of grumbling amongst the populace of New York has swollen ever larger with each new cloud burst.  Each damp day has been consecutively  followed by another and still another. For the runners, as long as their feet stay dry then they seem to appreciate the coolness and […]

  • June 23 The Good Runner Inside You

    Taking care of the feet is a daily ritual for Ananda Lahari, Pranjal, Pranab, and Pavol.  It will take each of them about 15 minutes to tape and prepare their feet before the start.  With the many days of rain it was particularly important to do this as the wet conditions made it easier for […]

  • June 22 Everybody Who Comes Here is Changing

    There is at the race, a very basic rule of math.  These shoes, belonging to these feet and legs and then attached to human beings, moving relentless onward will make these numbers grow every so inexorably greater.  There is no science however that can speak to, or explain, the journey taking place within them all. […]

  • June 21 Father’s Day, All About the Heart

    Today the sun will lift itself in a great arc across the northern skies.  It will offer to the world below the most light it has seen and felt in the entire year.  Nature today moves officially, according to the calender, into the wide and wondrous embrace of summer.  The air this morning hangs ripe […]