The sounds of a road race...

This Monday, the streets leading from Hopkinton to Boston will be lined with loud fans clapping and cheering on the thousands of marathoners passing by.  The Wellesley College girls will be screaming, there will be cow bells ringing loudly, boom boxes blasting, and lots of encouraging shouts of "Looking Good"!   These are the pleasant, fun sounds of a road race. 


Runners know that these are the peripheral sounds that we try to focus on.  We try to block out the guy running next to us who is hacking so hard you expect to see part of his lung fly out onto the course - if he doesn't pass out first.  "Did he smoke a pack of cigarettes before the race?"



There are some people that breathe in such a controlled, forceful manner that the exhalation sounds like a jet plane revving up it's engine.  It is like yoga breathing on steroids.  In contrast, some runners are uncontrolled 'wheezers', and it sounds like every breath might be their last. 

Without fail, someone will run with keys in their pocket that jingle the whole race.  Then there are the "throat clearers," the "snifflers," the "spitters," and the "snot-rocketers."  Every runner has to deal with these 'bodily fluid' issues, but some take it to an extreme - and these are the ones you don't want to be going stride for stride with during a race.

These are the real sounds of road racing.  Often, they help us run a faster time as we try to pull away from them!  

For all those who are racing on Monday, good luck blocking out all the unpleasant sounds.  Hopefully you can focus on the positive noise from the enthusiastic fans.  And, please forgive those non-runner spectators who cheer you on by saying, "keep running - don't stop," or "only a few miles to go," or my favorite - "you're almost there" (at mile 19 - or really at any point in the race before Boylston St.) ... they are just trying to help!