NYC Marathon

Jamie and I (Paul) woke around 8 am on a cold Sunday morning in her apartment in Brooklyn, NY. We had our standard morning cup of coffee and were talking and relaxing when she suddenly popped up with excitement when she remembered it was the NYC marathon that day. She had emailed me earlier in the week telling me the marathon was this coming Sunday (Nov. 4, 2007) and had said it was, “One of my favorite days in NYC!!!” The marathon was taking place just a couple of blocks down from her apartment (I think on 2nd Ave – she lived on 5th). She quickly looked up the exact timing of the start of the race and calculated when the first wave of participants would be running by our area. I believe the race started at 9 am and we were roughly seven miles from the start of the race, so we decided to get to 2nd avenue around 9:30 am to see the leaders.

As we approached 2nd avenue with our warm coats on Jamie was almost skipping down the street with excitement. It was easy to tell how much this meant to her, which I enjoyed seeing and I was looking forward to seeing what it was all about. Anyways, we found a nice spot on the side of the road and before we knew it the leaders were running (really more of a sprint) by us. Jamie started jumping up and down and was clapping and cheering on all the runners. I joined in and was cheering along with her. There are typically between 40 and 50 thousand participants in the NYC marathon, so there are people running/walking by most of the day. Jamie continued to clap and cheer people on for the next couple of hours. She would say “nice job 4650 or way to go or you can do it!” She would try to find the people that appeared to be struggling the most and would focus her attention on them and sometimes would almost run along next to them for 10 feet or so to encourage them to keep going. It was remarkable to see.

I very much enjoyed watching the marathon and enjoyed watching Jamie’s excitement even more, but after an hour and a half or so, I started to lose my interest in it, and sat down on the side of the street. Jamie remained very much into it. I’m not sure if it was the lack of sleep the night before or the fact that we didn’t have any breakfast or just the fact that I got a little tired of watching people run by, but I guess she noticed that my enjoyment had faded and asked me what was wrong. Well, I responded with the wrong answer by saying, “nothing really, I’m just a little tired of watching people run by, let’s go get something to eat.” Well…that was not what she wanted to hear and couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t want to continue watching and cheering on all these people. We got in a silly disagreement and then she went back to cheering all the runners on, but even more loudly now.

We stayed there for another forty-five minutes or so until her hunger struck and we decided to go have lunch somewhere. Jamie was not very pleased with me during this lunch because she was disappointed that I knew it was one of her favorite things and I didn’t rise to the occasion (which I normally do). I apologized and said I was completely in the wrong and we agreed that we should have had a large breakfast before going to watch the marathon (overtime she learned that I get pretty cranky when I don’t eat).

I wish I would have fully understood the importance of the NYC marathon in 2007, but like most things, Jamie opened my eyes to see the world in a different way, and I’m a fuller person and a more appreciative person because of her and this experience. I shared this story because I think it highlights some of Jamie’s greatest qualities, which was her passion (in this case for New York City), her desire to be part of something great, and her ability to express her care and love to the world and the people around her.

Top 3 reasons I believe the NYC marathon was important to Jamie:

1) Feeling a part of NYC – the NYC marathon goes through all five boroughs of NYC, has +40k participants and over 2 million spectators lining the streets of NY. She loved the energy the event brought to the city and always enjoyed being a part of something special.

2) Inspirational – The NYC marathon is 26.2 miles, with many large hills, which makes it a very tough race, plus it’s very difficult to even become a participant in the race. Many of the participants have disabilities and many fly from all over the world to be a part of something great and the amount of training and dedication the participants had to have to be a part of this event inspired Jamie greatly.

3) Tradition – the marathon had been going on every year since before she was born in Manhattan, and Jamie loved traditions, so she naturally looked forward to it each year.

Jamie had read something about how the arts of the world inspire each of us in different ways and wrote on a note pad, which I recently found on our refrigerator, that says “Life Goal/Kids Goal – EXPAND YOUR EXPERIENCE.” Thank you Jamie for expanding my experience in this world and for giving me goals to live by.

– J. Paul Kindem