A Weekend of Good Sports

No, I'm not talking about the World Series (sorry, Dad). I'm talking about masquerades and marathons in New York City.

I realized this weekend that Halloween is a completely different experience in New York than in most other American cities - not so much because the people here are more crazy and creative with their costumes, but because of the sheer practical imposition of the mass transit system. I didn't dress up this year and felt like a decidedly bad sport when I saw all the brave souls in costume on the subway Friday night. Of course there were some groups of masquerading revelers but mostly I noticed people who had obviously gotten dressed at home and then ended up riding the subway by themselves in all their costumed glory, completely disconnected from the context of whatever party they were headed to or from, and looking more than a little bit vulnerable. I wish I had pictures of some of the Halloween subway highlights from this weekend but these mental images will have to suffice:

A gangster dressed to the nines with fedora and penciled in moustache obviously trying to play it cool and blend in with the working stiffs in suits.

A sexy nurse who self-consciously tugged at the hem of her "uniform" as if rethinking the sluttishness of her ensemble in the garish subway lighting.

A guy dressed as Slash from Guns N Roses (I think), in acid washed jeans and an afro that must have been at least two feet in diameter and pressed up against the roof of the train like Marge's hair sometimes does on The Simpsons.

Heidi reported that she saw a girl in full Marie Antoinette Rococo regalia struggling to navigate the turnstile at the 7th Avenue station. That's just such a great metaphor for the way that glamour and fantasy can smack right up against harsh reality in this city. I love it.

Continuing the theme of good sports, Winnie and I walked Patrick to the subway this morning to catch the bus back up to New Paltz and remembered that it's marathon day! The NYC Marathon was slated to come through 4th Avenue in Park Slope starting around 10am. We were there around 9, so we watched the volunteers setting up elaborate house-of-card constructions of water cups that would shortly litter the street several inches deep, then I walked Winnie back home for a bit.


I came back down around 10 to meet Heidi and her mom Rita who was in town for the weekend visiting from California. We were there at the perfect time to watch the top runners come through like a pack of two-legged hybrid man-horses. They were seriously like MACHINES! So beautiful to watch, so intense.

I was remembering back to last year when Patrick and I experienced the marathon for the first time. We were staying in Park Slope for the weekend with Heidi and walked down to meet our friends Amy and Brian who wanted to see one of Amy's co-workers running. It didn't really occur to me until we got down to 4th Avenue what a scene it would be - what a spectator sport the marathon really is. Sure, there are some people like our friends who were primarily there to support someone they knew in the race, but most people just come out to celebrate the will power and stamina of the nearly 35,000 people each year who can chalk it up among their accomplishments that they ran in the New York City Marathon.

This year, the spectacle of Halloween ran right into marathon day, with tons of runners and spectators alike in costume. I was so swept up in all the great energy and humanity of the whole experience. We clapped and wooed for random people who looked like they needed the encouragement and shouted the names runners had written on their jerseys. One lady near us in the crowd had brought several boxes of Kleenex and held out tissues for the runners that came by. How thoughtful is that?

Thank you, Heidi and Rita, for the pictures and for all the great company today!