Quote of the Week: On the Back of a Marathon Runner's Shirt

SHUT UP, I'M NOT ALMOST THERE.      ---on a New York City Marathon runner's shirt.

I was doing some virtual running at home while watching a YouTube video of the 2022 New York City Marathon, held early in October of that year.  The particular video I saw is from the viewpoint of a participating runner, so in addition to the path ahead and the area's scenery to each side, you're pretty much looking at the backs of the other runners as you either pace behind them, pass them or get passed by them...the last two happening here a lot more than when I'm running most of my own races.  I also noticed a relative absence of the Jeff Galloway alternating walk/run method which apparently is much more popular in Gainesville than in other places.  One of the runners I saw in the video was a woman with the above interesting message boldly displayed on the back of her shirt, certain to draw lots of laughs from others...including myself.  The last long distance race I ran with any appreciable number of roadside spectators was the final Life South Five Points of Life Half Marathon, held here in Gainesville in February, 2022.  I was just completing the final "badass" hill on NW 16th Avenue at about the ten-mile mark of the race when one of those spectators began shouting that I was "almost there".  Only one problem: I still had more than three miles to go!  As I kept plodding along toward that hoped-for finish line, more onlookers kept crying out the same nonsense...it got to be quite annoying although I knew that they were trying to show encouragement.  The ultimate irony was that when I actually got to that final stretch of road ending with the finish line, no one was around to yell it out when it was actually true...ha, ha, ha.  I've run at home watching a number of different city-based races...Hartford, Toronto, Oakville (near Toronto), Cardiff (in Wales), Boston...and, of course, New York City...and it's that last one that, by far, shows a lot of fan spirit cheering on the runners as they pass by, and not just at some confined sections of the course, either: NYC rocks!  Yes, I pick up a lot of positive vibes "running" down the streets of the five boroughs of Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx...and then Manhattan again in that order.  Yet the other day, when I noticed that YouTube also carries a 24/7 live video of someone walking the streets of New York City (I'm assuming they do this in shifts), the surrounding people were silent, looked away from the walker and conveyed a strong sense of "mind your own business" and suspicion.  If they only held marathons there 24/7...