I am amazed by the energy, excitement, and life a running race like the BMO Marathon brings to a city. Yesterday morning when I ran across the Cambie Bridge in Vancouver I noticed it had been newly decorated in banners for this weekends marathon. There seemed to be many more runners out than normal this morning.

Several friends here are running the 26.2 mile course on Sunday. I am always inspired to hear of their usual 3 – 4 months of training to do an event like this. Their commitment over time to getting themselves prepared to complete such a grueling task is extremely admirable.

The people along the courses are also pretty amazing.

I once ran a marathon in nothing but driving wind and rain for 4 hours. The rain never seemed to slow up, but only rain harder.

There were times when I just laughed at the ridiculousness of the weather as I was trying to run. But all through this, there were people in neighborhoods all along the course cheering me on, and handing out fruit and water.

I had invested 4 months training, registered and paid, and traveled to run it, so I felt there was a strong reason as bad as things were to stay out in these nasty conditions and make it to the finish line. But these citizens in front of their homes for hours …drenched in rain, cold but still seemingly happy to be cheering on thousands of people they don’t know, as they ran past their homes. They were also amazing.

I am hoping for better conditions for the runners this Sunday but am appreciative of events like this that bring people in neighborhoods together in surprising ways.