I'm a little pissed. Should I be?

First, I would like to congratulate the incredible staff and management at NYRR for putting on a truly magnificent marathon event. I have been a bystander at several NYC Marathons in the past, but this year, upon reaching the age of 60, I decided to run in it.
(I actually started training two and half years ago dropping sixty pounds along the way.)

This was my first marathon and it was a great experience. I won't bore you with the details. The real value for me, however, was not just running the marathon, but running in all of the races in order to qualify to be in it and meeting hundreds, if not thousands, of other people interested in running. It was an honor to be on the road with them in those events and a greater honor to part of the ING 2007 NYC Marathon.

So many faces, there were the two guys who were on the 5AM subway with me and several others headed for the Staten Island ferry. They had trained together for over a year, meeting in a New Jersey park at 5:30AM four days a week, one had lotteried in, the other didn't make it. Tough break, we all told him, maybe next year. There he was, seeing his buddy off at the crack of dawn before going back uptown to meet him at the finish. Running builds friendships like that.

When several friends of mine mentioned that Katie Holmes had been in the race, I assured them that she must have entered by contributing to a charity ala Lance Armstrong, but I now see in press reports that this was not the case, that she had been allowed in the event well after entries had been closed to others. This is not fair to the thousands who failed to win a slot in the lottery or worked to qualify and should not be allowed to occur in the future.

I just read this:

Quote:

"Celebrities and people with name recognition are important to every sport, it adds glitz and glamour," Richard Finn, director of media relations for the New York Road Runners Club told "Access." "Does Billy Crystal have trouble getting tickets to the Yankees World Series? No. Do celebrities have trouble getting reservations in hot restaurants? No. In fact, they probably don't even pay for the meals much of the time."

Access Hollywood

To my knowledge, Mr. Crystal does not play in the World Series, he gets a seat. If Ms. Holmes wanted to watch the race, even sit in the grandstand, I would have no objection whatsoever, but to allow her to run because of her "compelling story", or her glitz and glamour, brings nothing of value to, what I think I can now call, our sport. If anything, Ms. Holmes got more coverage than Paula Radcliffe. That shouldn't be and I'm sure Mr. Finn would agree.

In the future, if any other persons approach the NYRR to gain VIP entry on the same basis as Katie, I hope they will be directed to send a nice, big fat check to the Marathon Charity of their choice and to add an additional seven checks of the same amount to cover the entries of their "special level of security" staff.

Please pass these comments on to whoever makes these decisions.

Thanks. Everything else was perfect.
See you on the road.
I'm the still-a-little-paunchy guy in the nearly worn-out orange training jersey and the faded Life is Good hat.

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