FINDING THE PERFECT MARATHON

In Joyful Defense of Very, Very Large Marathons

\ A ] HOEVER COINED the tidy little axiom “the more, the merrier” must

have recently run a megamarathon. In New York, London, Honolulu, Paris, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Washington, D.C._—all host cities to running extravaganzas—the verity of this phrase is proved every time someone crosses the finish line—which is every second or so—and adds another weary but satisfied smile to the haze of collective exhilaration.

With a few possible exceptions—the frantic driver who encounters the obstacle of the megamarathon on the way to the airport, the disappointed runner who didn’t get an entry form in on time, the city sanitation workers forced to earn overtime cleaning up thousands of little cups—everyone stands to gain in a megamarathon.

These mighty races are for ladies, gentlemen, and runners of all paces—and for the world-class cities in which the marathons take place and for the spectating faithful who strain over police barricades to yell until they’re hoarse. The more the merrier.

So you want to run a marathon? Consider what it is you seek. Do you want arace? Or are you looking for an experience? A megamarathon is both. Do you want a solitary test? Or do you want a jogging jamboree?

IT’S A HAPPENING

When Grete Waitz describes her days on the “racing carousel,” it is evident that the aura of marathons in London and New York is still vivid in her memory. “When you run in big races,” she says, “it is acompletely different atmosphere. There are spectators—you are never running by yourself. It is more than a race. It is a happening.”

Chris Brasher, the steeplechase gold medalist at the 1956 Olympics, observed the happening that was the 1979 New York City Marathon and stated: “Last Sunday, in one of the most violent, trouble-stricken cities in the world, 12,000 men, women, and children from 40 countries of the world, assisted by 2.5 million black, white, and yellow people, Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Muslims, Buddhists and Confucians, laughed, cheered, and suffered during the greatest folk festival the world has seen,” whereupon he founded the London Marathon, which debuted in 1981. Powerful marathons elicit powerful responses.

What is it, exactly, that makes a marathon a happening? The reasons for the beauty of the big marathon are as plentiful and diverse as the runners whoenter them. First, acollection of runners from around the world gathers. And in every marathon with 25,000 entrants, at least 90 percent of the runners are not the world’s best.

No matter. What they lack in talent is made up for in the sense of belonging toamass movement, tens of thousands strong. Distance feels less formidable, and the miles tick off more quickly whenrunners push each other along in a tidal wave of energy.

Running prudes argue that there are just too many people in a megamarathon—the start is

crowded, and it’s difficult to estab- |. A megamarathon’s tidal wave of energy lish a steady, rhythmic pace in the makes the distance feel less formidable.

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early miles. For those trying toreach or break a time goal, precious minutes are lost. But the alternative—arriving at the 20-mile mark without another soul in sight—seems far worse.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

The runner in a big marathon can expect strength to spring from within the race itself. It’s easier to hit the “wall” with hundreds of others who know exactly how you feel. So a few minutes are lost in the first few miles—misery loves

company. So do runners. And for the back-of-the-packers, for whom time is of no object, friendships can be born in six hours and 26.2 miles. At some megamarathons, such as Honolulu, the finish line remains open and the clock ticks on until the last person finishes. Every runner, jogger, and walker records an official time. It is a proudly egalitarian event.

Simultaneously, megamarathons offer semi-elite runners the chance to compete in the same race as the elites. In what other sport can nonprofessionals compete against the pros? The school yard basketball champion never gets a shot at Michael Jordan, and the local tennis buff cannot sign up to return Steffi Graf’s slicing backhand. But for the price of admission, a 2:20 marathoner can line up next to the world’s toughest, fastest endurance athletes. A 4:20 marathoner runs the same course as the winner, under the same conditions. It’s all the same race.

Not only do runners run well at megamarathons, but the course runs well, too. Staging a marathon is precision science, and all entrants become the beneficiaries of technical finesse and logistical ingenuity. Marathons generally grow over the years. And as they do, the glitches disappear. These mega races evolve to a high level, because the organizers of complicated, crowded courses possess street smarts—a special kind of intelligence that comes from knowing a city intimately and being able to predict problems and solve them before they ever have a chance to occur.

New York City Marathon race director Allan Steinfeld leans back in his chair and draws a graph in the air with his finger, depicting the growth of his event over time. “After each rise in participation,” he says, “there was a plateau for a few years, when we limited entry until all the problems were handled. Then we let it grow some more.” No race director wants a 25,000-person pile-up.

A few more luxuries of thoughtful organization include the assurance that when you check

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Inmegamarthons, runners rule the road.

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your baggage at the start you’ll find it waiting at the end, and that there’II be a whole crop of port-o-sans waiting every few miles. Traffic stops for big marathons. Runners rule the road. There’s enough exhaustion without battling exhaust. There are aid stations, medical staff, volunteers, and plenty of water.

Marathoner Marty Chalfin has run the marathon distance 85 times, at least once in every state. “Large marathons always have water,” he says, and “this is important. Sometimes at small marathons, the race director announces, ‘No water. Gotta supply your own.’ At one marathon I went to, the water was from a well, with orange slices in it. It was brown. Just what I was looking forward to after 18 miles—a cup of brown well water.” Bottoms up, Marty.

The water guarantee is not to be taken for granted. But in addition, big marathons give away lots and lots of Neat Stuff: T-shirts, posters, energy bars, Band-Aids, ibuprofen, restaurant discounts, little wrist-strap velcro things to zip keys in to. You can even get your toenails checked for fungus, your posture evaluated, and your legs massaged at the finish.

You can expecta giant prerace pasta feast, with eau de tomato sauce hanging in the air, and a postmarathon party, for the surprising number of people who are still able to move after the race is over.

You can justify bringing the family to a megamarathon and making a weekend out of it. The New York City Marathon’s public relations office is overwhelmed months in advance with requests for course maps so devoted family members can plan when and where to make their moves to cheer their heroes home.

THE POWER OF THE CROWD

But the greatest gift tendered at a colossal marathon is the praise and approval of the spectators who fidget at roadside, waiting for their friends to pass by. The praise rings genuine, and loud, no matter how slow the runner—in fact, it is loudest especially for the slow runners. This must be how it feels to be a quarterback for a day.

In London, marathon officials estimate that 500,000 people turn out to watch; in New York, the number is guesstimated at 2 million. In the city with areputation for hostility and coldness, strangers embrace the efforts of strangers.

Frank Shorter once said that “when you run up First Avenue in New York, if you don’t get goose bumps, there’s something wrong with you.” The residents feed the runners, setting up their own unofficial water stations, unofficial banana stations. There’s even, as marathon legend has it, an unofficial cheese blintz table in Brooklyn.

The relation between the runners and the crowd is symbiotic. Large marathons are interactive events. Spectators gain from the experience as muchas the