Bedford Avenue became Brooklyn’s loudest and longest block party this weekend, as tens of thousands of marathoners ran through the typically quiet streets of Williamsburg Sunday morning in the ING New York City Marathon.
The leader’s pack in the women’s race made their way through Bedford and North 7th Street, close to the halfway mark of the race, at approximately 9:50 a.m., followed by the men’s frontrunners twenty minutes later.By 11 a.m., the throngs arrived making crossing the intersection nearly impossible without facing a collision.
“It’s a good place to watch,” said Lisa Fiorenzo.“I wanted somewhere to see because I’m short.Also there are places to eat nearby and there’s music.”
“It’s perfect running weather,” said Fiorenzo’s friend, Josiah Niederbach, who will be running in the Philadelphia marathon in a mere three weeks.
Friends and supporters lined Bedford Avenue in rows of two or three deep, shouting messages in reaction to the runners’ t-shirts and cheering wildly if some they recognized ran by.
Andrew Hack was holding a brown cardboard sign with the word “Hack” repeated three times.He was waiting for his sister, Carolyn Hack, to encourage her.
“Everyone is yelling something different things, but nobody is going to be yelling “Hack!” said Hack.
Newlyweds Soo Lee and Matt Egan staked out a position on the corner of Bedford and North 7th, where they ran into an unexpected family friend: Daria, their wedding photographer.Egan grabbed Daria to chat for a few seconds before he rejoined the pack.So what was important enough to take valuable seconds off his mile time to talk about?
“He still hasn’t gotten our pictures to us,” said Egan.
