Grooved to Run

The Tunnels to Towers 5K was amazing.

Last year, they had about 15,000 participants. This year I saw bib numbers above 18000 and, according to the news, they had well over 20,000 participants. Hundreds of firemen, police officers, military personnel, were there… many in full gear.

According to my chip I finished in 27:49 (8:57/mi pace) which, while not my best ever, was certainly a respectable time. I lost quite a bit of time weaving in and out of walkers and basically just trying to keep moving through the course. Also, I obviously lost my GPS signal after I entered the tunnel, and it never really recovered. So I don’t really have much data for the run and, as you can tell from the map below, the run track isn’t quite accurate:

But then, getting a PR wasn’t the point of this one.

Here’s how the Staten Island Advance put it:

There are plenty of road races for runners who want to post a fast time, or go head-to-head against the best in the neighborhood.

Stephen Siller’s race just isn’t one of them.

There were plenty of athletes fidgeting in the E-ZPass lanes on the Brooklyn side of the tunnel earlier today, and no shortage of competitors. But for one day a year, most of them stuff their egos into their knapsacks and load them onto the UPS trucks headed for the finish line, for the chance to be part of something bigger than themselves.

Indeed.