November 1, 2009

Today was the day for the New York City Marathon. It is 26.22 miles running through the five boroughs of New York. Television covers it from beginning to the end and it is quite interesting. Not only the informative coverage but the New York scenery both make it pleasant to watch.

Many years ago there were only a few thousand participants. Today there were 43,000. The participants' list is growing by leaps and bounds. When the winners cross the finish line there are people who are still crossing on the Verrazano Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn.

The women's race was very exciting since the Brit Paula Radcliff was leading almost until the last few miles when everything changed and a 37 year old Ethiopian woman won the race. The Americans were nowhere to be seen.

The men's race was a little more stable. It was won by an American in 2:09:15. This was the first time that an American won since 1982 so he is understandably deserves all the credit.

Except that he is American by naturalization. He is as American as I am. Not born and bred in the US but permitted to move here so the Americans can have a world class athlete in a sport where they don't have any.

I am not against naturalizing people. I was naturalized and I am proud to be an American. But to say that finally an American won is kind of stretching it. It is like naturalizing Pele or David Beckham and saying we finally have a world class soccer player.

What this country needs is homegrown talent and not ones bought for Dollar.

Now I have another observation.

At the beginning the races it was announced that they would start the elite group of women and men in that order.

Now the word elite according to the Oxford Dictionary means "a group of people regarded as the best in a particular society or organization". I don't argue with this. But to me the word "elite" also means outstanding and exemplary.

I don't see why those 18 or 20 runners from each group were the exemplary ones. Granted, they are the best marathoners in the world but hey, they do this for a living. Just as I did engineering for a living or a dishwasher does his work for a living. These runners get paid and paid well to run.

To me the elite and exemplary were the 43,000 runners who ran for their own reasons.

May that be for charity or for personal satisfaction but most of them completed the course. The exemplary are the handicapped ones who did it on wheelchairs or with the assistance of the Achilles Club. And at the end didn't get thousands of dollars prize money but only the respect of their friends and family for finishing something humongous.

These are the 43,000 stars that should shine.