This past weekend on November 6th the largest marathon in the world, The New York City Marathon, took place. In support of one of our roommates running the marathon, eight of us took a trip to NYC for what was a truly inspiring weekend. Compared to the Boston Marathon the NYC Marathon has a much bigger turn out. It was a heartwarming experience to see thousands of people coming together in support of the runners.
Many of the runners had their names on their shirts which made it helpful for the fans to give them support! Seeing and participating with thousands of cheering friends and families in support of strangers running was such an enjoyable event to be a part of. After cheering at Mile 17 for a while, we had given many people the push they needed after hitting their first wall in the Marathon. Seeing the smiles on the runners faces after cheering for them and giving our high fives was such a fun experience knowing that we helped them get through on of the toughest events of their lives. Although these runners had no idea who we were, they were so grateful when they heard their name being cheered in the crowd by strangers. We then headed over to Central Park at Mile 25, to give the runners the last bit of support in their last mile of running.
Throughout the many miles that we cheered at, there were many encouraging and funny signs to motivate the runners. A few of my favorite was one made my my roommates and I saying “Juju on the streets” to give our roommate a spark to keep on going. Another catchy sign that was proximate to the times today said “Run like Trump is trying to grab your junk”. There were many funny yet motivating signs to keep all of the runners going through this extremely tough event.
It was a truly inspiring experience to see the Marathon from the sidelines cheering on people who came from all over the world to run. A diverse group of over 50,000 runners coming together to run this event ignited a sense of unity in NYC that day that will never be forgotten. Congratulations to all of the runners, especially my roommate Helene Collins!!!!