city at night

city at night

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Marathon

This morning Alejandro and I were heading to a nearby restaurant on Insurgentes Avenue for a late breakfast when we saw that the avenue was closed off and that the running of the Mexico City Marathon was underway.  

The marathon had around 40,000 participants, and it is ranked as the 9th most important marathon in the world.  The race began before dawn at the city's main plaza, the Zócalo, headed through the historic center of the city, down the Paseo de la Reforma, through the ritzy neighborhood of Polanco, through Chapultepec Park and then the Roma and Condesa neighborhoods.  The runners continued down Insurgentes Avenue (just a couple blocks from my apartment) all the way to the finish line within the Olympic Stadium on the campus of the National University of Mexico.

We stood on Insurgentes for at least an hour, watching and cheering the runners as they passed by.  At that point the serious competitors had long since passed by and finished the race.  The people that we saw were ordinary participants... men and women, young and old, those who were athletic and those who were not very physically fit.  Some were running, some were jogging, and at this point, well over half way through the race, many were simply walking.  

We applauded, and gave the participants "thumbs-up" and "high-fives" as they passed.  It is a wonder that Alejandro didn't go hoarse since he was encouraging them by name with shouts of "¡Vamos!" (Go!) and "¡Animo!" (roughly translated as Courage! or Hold on!)

I had not brought my camera with me.  (I should never leave the apartment without my camera.  One never knows what one will see in Mexico City!)  Fortunately, Alejandro was able to capture some pictures and video with his phone.




Near us, someone had made a sign with a bull's-eye that said "Touch for energy".





We later watched a YouTube video of today's TV coverage of the race.  The winner was an Ethiopian runner named Fikadu Kebede.  The winner of the female competitors was Gladys Tejeda from Peru.  Her time of just over 2 hours and 36 minutes was an all time record for women in this event.
 

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