Last Sunday there were two programs on television that I enjoyed watching. The first was the New York City Marathon and the second was the Formula 1 races at the Circuit of Americas in Austin. And as an added attraction, the NYC Marathon had a shortened showing of the race after the Formula 1 race. I missed a few football games, but these two events are once-a-year broadcasts that, for a runner, was worth the viewing.
The fascinating points in watching the Formula 1 racing was the design and technology of the cars in the race. The fact that you can watch a car go from 45 miles per hour to 200 miles per hour in less than 10 seconds is tough to imagine. The fact that when a car comes in for a pit stop to change tires the total stop is 2 seconds. Try to imagine changing four tires on a car in 2 seconds. I did see one slow stop that lasted 2.4 seconds.
Being a runner I enjoyed watching the 52,000 runners enter the New York City Marathon. The television focused on the elite professional runners the majority of the time but had views of the mass of runners crossing the bridges. The fact that to enter the NYC Marathon you have to be entered in a lottery and have your name drawn shows how popular this race is.
