2005-06-01 - 12:03 p.m.

Now that the weather is staying nice consistently I am seeing all of you healthy people out running. I have always admired people that got satisfaction out of running. Myself, never enjoyed it, in fact, I will only run if someone is chasing me with a knife… and even then I may just stop and tell them to kill me quickly because it would be better for me.
A few years ago a friend was running in the New York Marathon for a charity that raised money for the victims of September 11th. I was so impressed that he, a bit of a chubby guy, would take that on that another friend and I decided to volunteer at the marathon. Our thinking was we would be able to see G run with front row seats, but also just to experience the moment. Ok, whatever... yes, in retrospect it seems like a lofty plan considering there are only, oh, I don’t know, 37,000 people participating but we were young and naive.
We were to meet our volunteer group at the park at 7:30 to receive our assignments. Our post was at the 22 mile mark and our job was to keep people behind the barriers and to give encouragement to those that needed it. We were also given long blue rain coats to wear… you know, so people would respect us.
For two hours we literally just stood there with nothing to do since we were so close to the end but once the runners started over the hill it became very exciting. The crowd started really getting unruly around the three hour mark and I had to use some muscle to get them back. It was all fun and games until an older French gentleman stopped right in front of me shaking his head. I don’t speak French and apparently he had no grasp of English. What to do, what to do? By the grace of God a woman in the crowd spoke fluently and we could get the bottom of this man’s issue. It seems that he had a cramp in his butt (!) and wanted to stop. My first reaction was, “Man that sucks, you’ll finish next year.” But then I realized I had a job to do! With the aid of the interpreter I tried to boost him back up all the while “massaging” his cramp. When he said he felt like he could continue he and I ran together for about a half mile and then I left him to finish. I have no idea if he did but I like to think he did. In retrospect I really hope he did, in fact, have a cramp and wasn’t just some perv.
We never did see G. But I was still glad to be a part of it.

previous - next