NEW YORK CITY MARATHON 2007

Today, New York City witnessed its annual fitness event of Marathon race which I marked earlier in my calender to do some photo assignment for my photo blog. I was pretty excited this time to experience my Nikon 80-400mm lens which I recently bought from ebay. Two days before, I browsed the official website of the New York City Marathon and checked the course map and prepared myself to go near the vicinity of Verazano bridge from where the marathon was scheduled to start. Verazano Bridge used to be the longest suspension bridge in the world. Unfortunately, I got a cold that restrained me from going early as I need some rest to take some photos of the day events. So I decided to go near Queens bridge where the runners will enter into Manhattan. This morning, I took a subway to 59th Street Lexington Avenue and walked till the First Avenue where the traffic was closed for the event. Though I went little late, I managed to get into time and prepared my gadget to take this assignment. First, the wheelchair riders came speeding their gears guarded on side by the cyclists. People were lined up on the sides of the streets with placards, whistles, flags and balloons. It seems like people from different part of the world came here to take part in this Marathon not only to run but also to cheer their parties to succeed. Not only that, people informed their friends about the status of the runners before they passed through our ways. Cheers to the advancement of communication technology.

It was great to see those NYPD pilots lined up in their bike before the first runner from men and women came into scene. Even the local band across the street presented their most valuable songs to cheer the runners.

The commercial advertisements were in swing as they gave free t shirts, water bottles, caps and balloons with their labels and logos. After all, more than million witnessed this event.

After a while, I moved to the Central Park where people were packed on the side of the streets to greet the runners. Some people encouraged the runners when they were near to exhaust on the way just a few miles away from the finishing line. So great to see so many people from different countries, different races, religion, and culture gathered on this particular event to show that we are all same; "same human being".