Marathon Sunday

This Sunday I had the opportunity, due to geographical good luck, to walk out my front door and land in the middle of the New York City Marathon. We live a half-block from the 11-mile point in this race, which seems like the perfect distance to catch a glimpse of the event. Basically, few people are truly struggling at this point, and everyone looks pretty good--which makes me feel happy for them, as well as terrible for the knowledge that I would look destroyed and bedraggled by this point, (if I had the good luck to get this far).
It's truly amazing to see these people, people of all sizes and shapes, from all corners of the world, running such a long distance. Knowing the effort that they've expended to reach this point is truly inspiring. While I'm not much of a sports-fan, and I can't conjure up the excitement and enthusiasm that so many spectators seem to experience, I'm not wholly immune to the awe created by this vision of thousands of people running fast, hard, and long.
What I am always amazed by, perhaps even more than by the dedication and gumption these people present, is by the fact that there are overweight people running it. All joking aside, how is possible that someone could train to run more than 26 miles and still be unable to shed that annoying "michelin effect" so common to so many Americans?
I just don't get it.
Anyway, I took some photos of the day. Unfortunately, I didn't have the forethought to take a picture of any chubby people, but perhaps it's better to speak without examples and save anyone the shame of being that person.