RUN FREE
The 37th New York City Marathon, the largest in the world with over 37,000 runners last year, returns to my city this Sunday. And the New York Times has a story on the use of music players by the runners. Here's the situation:
"USA Track & Field, the national governing body for running, this year banned the use of headphones and portable audio players like iPods at its official races. The new rule was created to ensure safety and to prevent runners from having a competitive edge.
But trying to enforce such a rule on a 26.2-mile course filled with thousands of runners may be futile. The New York City Marathon, which strongly discourages the use of audio players, will not attempt to police its field on Sunday for lack of a surefire way to carry out the ban."
The piece has lots of quotes by many runners arguing why music players should be banned from the race, ranging from safety issues, to runners missing out on the pure experience of this arduous race (It's really about something as banal as insurance, as the article informs us almost in passing). But this one argument against music players I think took the cake:
"Tucker Andersen, who has run in every New York City Marathon since 1976, scoffed at runners who rely on music to get them into a zone, and said it could create dangerous situations for other competitors...
Andersen also said wearing headphones robs runners of the complete marathon experience.
He remembered running alone across the Willis Avenue Bridge into the Bronx in his first marathon, about to hit the wall at the 20-mile point, when a teenager leaned out of a building’s window and played the theme song from “Rocky” on a boom box.
“If I was wearing an iPod, I never would have heard that,” Andersen said."
Priceless.
Music does touch us everywhere, as this latest iPod Ad* reminds us.
* The catchy number if you're wondering, is "My Hot, Hot Sex" by CSS.
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