I was located near the route for the half-marathon today--so walked over there around 7 AM to cheer on first the wheelchair competitors, then the hundreds of runners.

I have been among the runners many times, rarely on the sidelines. I know how it feels to have someone clapping, saying Looking Good! as though just to you.

Now, from the other side, I know what it is like to clap and cheer, to receive the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen, from faces creased and damp with effort, people truly appreciative of your applause. Faces that light up at the brief connection. People out of breath still managing to say, Thank you!

You’d think just the act of running is enough, in and of itself. But no. At least some of us seem to find some part of our courage and endurance through the clapping and ‘good girl!’ from others.

While on the sidelines, I met a young man from India, a techie there to cheer a team from a company-sponsored charitable organization. This man told me of India, of its dense populaton, of its many religions.

What he had to say reminded me of a quote a friend sent the other day:

“Even as a tree has a single trunk, but many branches and leaves, so there is one true and perfect Religion, but it becomes many, as it passes through the human medium.”
Mahatma Gandhi.
 
He also unasked recommended a meditation group nearby that meets weekly.

So, maybe the race is not just for the runners.

There were a couple runners in the race who are very special to me--I almost missed them they were running so fast, but they called my name and I called theirs, and then they were gone.