After about mile 16 I didn't move much from the group of people I was around. I passed them, they passed me and it went on like this until the finish. One of them was even wearing a No Meat Athlete shirt. She approached me with a "nice shirt" comment. We made some small talk and she introduced me to her friend who was also running her first marathon, and it was her birthday no less! I asked the NMA girl if this was her first marathon. She said, no, that she wasn't even racing but just out running with her friend to help out.
This girl wasn't the only one who was buddying up with another runner. As I continued on, I found several pairs of people. Some couples, some family, some just friends. I overheard many little snippets of conversation. All of them were encouraging and thoughtful. Everything from asking about if they've hydrated enough to saying that they could walk the rest of the way in and still finish with plenty of time.
It was a reminder of one of the amazing things about running: the sense of community. I think that a lot of people believe running to be an individual sport. In a lot of ways, I suppose it is. But when you start to race, or go to running groups, its remarkable how you feel connected to others around you.
Somewhere between mile 20 and 23 (I say "somewhere" because I was making a remarkable effort not to count miles at this point) there was a girl sitting on the curb. I didn't think much of it, there were several people who had stopped to stretch or rest. Behind me by only a few steps was another girl who went up to the one on the curb and asked if she was ok then pulled her up and told her that she was going to finish, even if they had to walk the rest of the way.
They were strangers. The girl on the curb said thank-you and they went about introducing themselves. And began walking together. It was a remarkably selfless act. It was not the first one I've seen. I've watched a friend of mine jump to the aid of a complete stranger and run 20 miles with them in the middle of the night just so they'd have some company. And I've watched runners pull each other up after they fall on the trails, offer each other water, the list goes on.
I think its about being able to relate to each other across all other boundaries. Its about understanding the challenges that each runner faces, no matter what their experience level is. That even the novice runner can help the elite and that a novice can accept a compliment from an elite runner for a totally crappy race time because, we've all been there.
Its about community. During the last 8 miles or so I ran in the general vicinity of this girl...she was blonde and wearing a shamrock headband with little bobble clovers on top. We'd passed each other several times but never spoke. At the end of the race after I grabbed a bottle of water and was passing the stack of bananas the shamrock girl came up and congratulated me...and then, another runner I'd seen did the same.
In many ways I think this type of connection and community keeps me sane. While I consider myself a pretty competitive person, I would sacrifice a PR any day to help my sister finish her first marathon, or a friend finish his first 5k...because what I've noticed is that I tend to feel more excited when I help others achieve their goals than if I achieve mine. There will always be another race, but there won't always be the opportunity to help someone who really needs it and I think that, in running, if no where else, people realize that. I guess this helps me feel a little better about the world...
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