Before I start my story, I think these paragraphs should be read with music in the background.
Today I’m going to tell you about and illustrate a personal experience. While I rest from the half marathon I ran today in Brooklyn, I type a little and upload some photos to share them on the blog, because there are experiences that you feel when you have to share them.
Before coming for three days to the Lovemarks Academy at Saatchi Saatchi, on the corner of Hudson and Houston in Soho, along with Bernal Esquivel, I checked to see if there was a New York Road Runners Association 10K race around. After some searching, I came across only one half marathon option, 21 kilometers and a few meters, from Coney Island to Prospector Park in the great borough of Brooklyn. It took me a few moments of hesitation to sign up later with a ¨What the fuck!¨ and a lot of respect in my stomach for a distance I haven’t run for many months.
Leaving the hotel in the morning, I went to the subway to start a journey that I assumed would be more complicated. I got off on the D line to the 14, and there I transferred to the F, which took me directly to Coney Island, near the Boardwalk where the race would start. In the car I was coming on, a guy in his 60s, stretching obsessively for the entire trip, took a second and snapped this photo, which does not fail to reflect the internal pachanga I was bringing with me.
After a ride of maybe half an hour, in which I did not notice the moment when the train passed under the river through a tunnel from Manhattan to Brooklyn, we then arrived at this beach famous for a thousand stories and many movies of all kinds, to find myself with thousands of people behind the same idea that led me to this place.
It’s so much fun to arrive at a marathon, or a half marathon like today’s, and discover the thousands of people who share with you the excitement of running, to test yourself and enjoy yourself to the fullest, meet people and live this time with no one else but yourself, even if you are surrounded by people everywhere.
Take a look at the crowd I met and some of the atmosphere that greeted me in the morning. It was very different and special, on a gray, cold and windy morning.
On the way you meet people, talk to some of them and others talk to you with any excuse. On the way I took a little camera with me and when I thought of taking a selfie, like the one below, I was laughed at by the camera thieves in the background, who didn’t miss a chance to get in the picture. In fact, when they asked me where I was from, they were very surprised when I told them I was from Costa Rica. This is essentially a local race.
On the way to this competition, I missed the famous Indio of our races, the usual Liguista, my friends from the DSQ group who break their teeth when they reach the finish line, the DSQ sheikhs, the unionists, the Largo, the Motivador, Limoncello, the Daga, Father Minor and so many other characters who appear in tennis shoes and shorts in our races.
In this half marathon there was a guy dressed as Superman and another as Spiderman, but one man in particular, I loved. An older Asian man, running with a small speaker with oriental music at a good volume on his waist, two chilindrines playing in his hands and a message on his T-shirt that said: “Life begins at 70”. I had to take his picture, and fortunately it didn’t come out blurry, as it would have hurt me to leave this character out. So that you can see him from the front, below I add one more photo in the goal.
I was very impressed by the long and wide straight that we ran for many kilometers, with brick apartment buildings and simple people, of all types and colors, cheering the runners on. It is rich in these areas the feeling of invisibility that is acquired, because everyone runs as he wants, dresses as he pleases, does what he pleases and hardly anyone sees again. It is a society accustomed to see everything and tolerate everything, to respect the individuality of each person and except in some exceptions, not to get involved with anyone but their own people. They applaud without problem and encourage those who try, without reserve or suspicion. This environment would be inhospitable and sterile for the jokesters and sawbones of our latitudes. If only they would learn!
In any case, after a good urban stretch, the route took us to Prospector Park. This green space surprised me by its size, the variety of activities and the joyful people who enjoyed it. Maybe a couple of times the size of La Sabana and with complete avenues inside. There was the finish line at the end, in a noisy crowd that I was very happy to find, 21 kilometers and a few meters after the start.
A few minutes after leaving the hotel in Midtown, a few blocks from Times Square, I realized that I had forgotten my Garmin, the GPS watch with which I run and monitor my heart rate. This mistake possibly cost me that I had once again tried to go under 2 hours in a half marathon, to no avail. After a while of stretching, a Gatorade and a dry beguel, I went to look for my time and this is what I found:
So no way, next time I’ll put on my sneakers to go under two hours. With this time, of course, it is clear that I am a slow runner and that I do not do this to compete more than with myself, to enjoy the health that God gives me from heaven and that I can boast about absolutely nothing.
I think that if we have health, two legs that can move and something in the mind to organize your physical preparation, it is unacceptable not to take advantage of such a blessing to let it deteriorate without any effort. At least in my case, it would have been unforgivable to continue being the sedentary bum I was for many years, and that today I am very glad to have left behind since about five years ago when I started running.
So, I can only tell you that even if life starts at 70, there is no time to lose. Whatever you plan to do, do it. Whatever excites you the most, drives you and moves your soul, is surely what you can’t put off. We live too much in the future or in the past, letting the present pass by as if it would come back. Today is when and not later.
So, today I ended up happy and grateful, enjoying something as simple as running. I really enjoyed this experience and for this reason, as I would have told you with a Powerade in hand, I wanted to share it with you here in this blog. Tired and satisfied, that’s how I was at the moment of this photo.
Before taking the subway back to Manhattan, I met the nice little Chinese guy with the oriental music, the good step and the easy smile, running a half marathon in the year he turned 70. I asked him for a photo and he immediately granted it. As usual, I asked the favor to someone passing by, and with this picture I finish telling you this story of a Saturday like today.
A hug!
J
