Apologies–I returned last night from the Tiny Fun House’s Reston annex, where I haven’t had much time to post.
The trials for the U.S. Olympic men’s marathon team were held in Central Park this morning, and Kurt came to town to join us on the scene. Runners completed five laps in the park, so we–and hundreds of other spectators–were able to keep up with the race by running back and forth, catching them six times. Ryan Hall eventually placed first (Kurt took this shot relatively early in the race). Hall broke away around mile 17, according to news reports. When we saw him around mile 20, he was at least 45 seconds ahead of the next runner. “Ritz” came in second and Brian Sell, not pictured, took third. Sell is part of a training program focusing on team training, including living together and team runs.
The event was a blast to watch; running back and forth kept spectators actively engaged. We saw the lead runners at multiple points, which kept us invested in the results. Otherwise, we would have risen after four hours of sleep just to see a few seconds of running. There were so many people jogging back and forth, it became something of a social event on the go. Once we returned home, though, we were saddened to learn that a runner died early in the race.
I’ll post more pictures from the event later.
Update: Here are some photos on Flickr. I’ll keep adding to this group.
