Races Like a Girl

I went into the city to the More Marathon expo today. Picked up my number and chip: I’m number 366. For a moment, I thought it said “666” — bad omen?

The registration tables said it all: the table for half marathoners was long enough to land a plane on. I couldn’t even find the marathon table at first, as it consisted of three shoeboxes stuck on the end of the phalanx of half marathon boxes. I only came across one other marathoner while I was there.

It was a strange expo — but I guess most expos are strange: A mish mash of exhibitors, such as the California Raisins, St. Josephs Aspirin, CARE international and Florida Grapefruit Juice to name a few. Okay, when I look at that list, I know it’s not just me. It was a particularly strange expo.

I’m happy to say that the More shirt is not as ugly as most race shirts are, which is a major accomplishment. Sometimes I think if I had more time I’d volunteer to design race tee shirts. I always see really great designs from JogBlog’s races in England…why are American shirts always so ghastly?

I threw off my Shy Coat and introduced myself to women’s running legend Katherine Switzer, who was very friendly and kind enough to sign her name on my race number, along with some encouraging words.

After I left I realized I’d forgotten to ask her to please tell NBC to do a better job of covering the ING NYC Marathon, which she appears on as a commentator. Their 2006 coverage was less than stellar — four hours of human interest stories, lots of shots of cheering crowds, inane factoids (“…the runners will consume 16 trillion bottles of water!”)…and about 20 minutes total of people actually running. Can you imagine the outcry if they covered NASCAR that way? They also couldn’t even identify who were the “rabbits” vs. competitors, which led to lots of confusion for those of us watching the women’s race.

I really need to calm down.

I have been hydrating and eating complex carbs like it’s going out of style. Now I just need to get a couple of good night’s sleep and I’ll be as ready as I’ll ever be.

Filed under: racing |