The weather gods smile upon us. With 5 K, 10 K, half marathon and marathon races this weekend, over 60,000 runners altogether, there would likely have been many people collapse in the unseasonal heat and high humidity of last weekend and the midweek heat wave, 35 C at its peak and humidity making it feel like upwards of 40 C. But a cold front came through yesterday bringing gentle breezes from the Arctic. At 8 am when the marathon began, our balcony thermometer was reading 13-14 C and the air felt dry, quite perfect conditions. I snatched glimpes of the leading runners as I watered our balcony plants, as usual from Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, also a champion from Morocco or Tunisia I believe; they went past our condo well ahead of the pack I saw later going by, a river of people in shorts and tee shirts of every colour, making me think of the 'super-organism' E O Wilson and others speak of, reminding me a little of the river of people I watched emerging from the railway station in Bombay in the morning rush hour -- although that was a far larger crowd, over a million I was told, every day. Belatedly I thought of the camera and took a few photos, showing the laggards going south on the other side of the Canal, and average runners on our side, still mostly making a good pace after about 38 K. David, who has run a few marathons, and others, friends who have talked about long-distance running, speak of the feeling of group solidarity that emanates from these long distance runners and I've seen glimpses of it in the groups running by in former years, wasn't close enough to the action this year to detect it, but no doubt it was there, enough to give me a good feeling about a few of the best human qualities as I watched briefly between the hectic sequence of Sunday morning chores. It's one of the annual events in Ottawa that I always enjoy and look forward to from one year to the next, even though I take part only vicariously and this year only fleetingly.
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