Archive for November 2006
On cows and marathons
Washington’s Marine Corps Marathon is awesome, and so are the 30,000 people who run it. I became aware of this while cheering for a friend of mine last weekend dressed as a giant cow.
Understand, of course, that the marathon took place the day after a Halloween party, so why wouldn’t I wear the cow outfit again? I expected it would be easier for my friend to spot me (oh yeah) and that it might motivate him to moooove a bit faster (not stopping anytime soon).
What wound up happening, though, was that the hundreds of marathoners who ran past me put on a tremendous display of humor while running, one that left me stunned by the response to my silly costume.
In order of frequency, here are the comments I got:
1. “That costume is udder-ly ridiculous!”
2. “Nice udder!” (Yes, the costume did feature a somewhat disgusting udder component.)
3. “Eat more chicken!”
4. “Got milk?”
5. “Holy cow!”
Even better were the handful of runners who ran out of their way to high-five me or — yes — milk the cow costume’s udder. One runner did so with his mouth — horrifying and hilarious at once. Anyway, anyone who can do that while running 26.2 miles is pretty cool in my book.
Here is a video of my friend Dan running at about the 7-mile mark:
Here is a video of a man who ran the whole marathon while juggling four balls:
And here are some random photos:
And, finally, how could I post a blog entry about marathons without giving a shout-out to my sister, who finished the New York Marathon on Sunday in 3:45. That makes how many marathons for you now, sister?
And with that, I’ll move on to greener pastures.
