Marathon part 2: Brooklyn

Saw the first friendly friend face shortly after mile ten after scanning the crowd wildly along the right side for some seriously blonde hair. Big hugs and company for a minute's walk, and I was back on my way, feeling less alone among strangers. And then far less alone a couple blocks later as I found what I was looking for, a college friend in one of the bands along the route. I realized it after I passed, so I turned around, ran back to him and screamed his name while jumping up and down and waving my arms until his bandmate pointed at me to get his attention. He raised his eyebrows and smiled, I smiled and continued along quite pleased with my scouting.

And then I only got cooler and more suave when I hit the most dead boring part of Brooklyn, Hasidic Williamsburg. There are blocks of no cheering at all. Minimal eye contact. It was as though nobody on the sidewalks and stoops noticed that forty-something-thousand strangers were rushing past the house. And then, thinking that one guy out of a bunch taking pictures was my cousin, I screamed his name to get his attention, poking my head in front of his so that he'd see my face, it would all register and we'd have a nice moment-- a repeat of greeting the band. Only, this was not actually anyone I knew. I suddenly became very grateful that what I was supposed to do in that moment was turn back and run away-- quickly.

And so I ran and ran and ran and was still in Brooklyn. The hills of Brooklyn. Nobody told me there were hills in Brooklyn! At least the crowds became fun again, the bands came closer together and the signs were funny. That reminds me-- my favorite sign on the back of a Chilean who was tired of being asked: "I am NOT the Chilean Miner!" Second favorite (because it made me laugh when I needed it) was on the back of an eighty something year-old, listing his birth year, age, marathons run, and then saying "What I lack in speed I make up for in endurance. Ask my wife."

A minute of video from the Team Life Without Lupus cheer squad in Brooklyn: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=458050809175 (you can see me in the still before the video starts in the white visor and then running by soon after it starts)

[Next up: Queens]