One of my favorite things about Yankee Homecoming in Newburyport, MA is the 10M and 5K Road Race, which is tonight, Tuesday July 29, 2008, starting at 6:25 PM at the Newburyport High School.

(The race is great provided that you are not trying to get out or into Newburyport during the time of the race, don’t have a must get to appointment in Newburyport, or have gone into labor.)

All the traffic is cleared from the course, the streets are quiet and filled with excitement. The neighbors come out of their houses, and folks get to see each other and chat.

And the first runners that come are so graceful and so beautiful and make running look so effortless. Every year they take my breath away.

Every runner, for me, is heroic. And I am so proud of all of them. And the crowds cheer for everyone.

And one of the things that I like the best, is that often the very last runner gets the biggest cheers of all. So many of us can relate to wanting to have the shear gumption and drive and courage to run the race, and would be proud to finish anywhere at all, including dead last.