One day, while I was strolling through Central Park, a temporary seating area suddenly popped up, and many fences with “NYPD” written on them began to surround the park. I wondered what was going on. It turned out that the famous New York City Marathon would be held the following Sunday. 

On the day of the marathon, my husband and I went out to watch on the way to the museum. The scale of the event was so large that it seemed as if runners from all over the world had gathered. And what I found most interesting were the people who filled the streets and seemed to be having a good time.

I’m from Nobeoka City, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. Because our city has a corporate team with famous runners, everyone, from elementary school students to adults, is familiar with long-distance running events. Here, on Fifth Avenue, the way people were cheering for their family and friends running in the race was the same as at my hometown’s small events. When they found their loved ones, they would shout out something. As a newcomer who struggles to understand English even in everyday conversation, I had no idea what they were saying, but I could fully feel their feelings.

And the people who seemed to come just to have fun, not because they knew anyone in the race, were wonderful. An elderly couple was waving handmade flags at the runners. A young man was dancing to music on his own. A man went over the fence to the course with a bunch of bananas and tore them off one by one, handing them out to the runners. At a well-mannered event in Japan, both the loud music and the banana man would be stopped or kicked out by the security guards. 

When it comes to festivals, the whole city gets excited. It was a very New York experience for me.