This weekend, a new species of accelerated pedestrian will take to this city’s streets.
asserted
species → take → streets
Though they’ll be participating in the races of the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, they aren’t like runners of yore.
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they → participate → yore
These athletes are, oddly, smiling.
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athletes → smile → ?
“For these runners, it’s much more about having a good time than finishing with a good time,” says Michelle Taylor, head of global sports sponsorship at Tata Consultancy Services.
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Taylor → ’ → Services
“For the younger generation, it’s a social-first activity.”
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it → ’ → generation
The word social here means what it usually does these days: social media, with its posting, sharing, liking and livestreaming.
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it → mean → posting
But it also retains its original meaning of interacting with other humans, on screens but also, happily, on the streets.
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it → retain → streets
Taylor’s job at the global company takes her to marquee races around the world, and she saw the generation gap on display earlier this fall at the Berlin Marathon.
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she → take → Marathon
She reports that the older runners were supported by family holding signs with jokes like “You’re running better than the government” — a classic that works in pretty much every country — while younger runners were cheered on by groups of friends whose signs read “Congratulations on making this marathon your whole personality.”
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marathon → report → Congratulations
I’ve seen it at even closer range, as I’ll be pacing my 16-year-old daughter to her first half-marathon on Sunday.
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I → see → Sunday
It feels like only a few weeks ago that I was pushing her in a jogging stroller along the waterfront; now she leads the cross-country team in loops at the park while blasting Madonna’s “Vogue” on her Bluetooth speaker.
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she → feel → speaker
Time sprints forward, barely stopping for a sip of water at the aid stations.
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Time → sprint → stations
At the core of it is why we run.
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we → run → it
For me, every hour spent out on the Martin Goodman Trail is an hour that I’m not looking at a screen, with the added bonus of cardiovascular activity.
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I → spend → activity
The book is called “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner” for a reason, right?
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book → call → reason
For the younger runners, however, it’s all about community.
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it → ’ → community
My opportunity to disconnect is their way to connect.
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opportunity → disconnect → ?
“The old joke still applies, the one that goes: ‘How do you know if someone runs marathons?
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someone → apply → marathons
Just wait, they’ll tell you,’” Taylor tells me.
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Taylor → wait → me
“Only before, we were talking about their training, their aches and pains.
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we → talk → training
Now, they’re talking about the cool outfit they’re going to wear and the cool people they’re going to be around.
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they → talk → outfit
It’s much more celebratory.
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It → ’ → ?
I’m still surprised when the runner next to me holds their phone at arm’s length and starts filming.
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runner → ’m → length
I doubt I’ll ever think smartglasses aren’t creepy.
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smartglasses → doubt → ?
I agree with the dictionary: Runfluencer isn’t a real word.
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Runfluencer → agree → dictionary
That said, I can’t deny all this makes the whole experience more engaging for everyone involved.
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experience → say → everyone
It’s especially promising for Toronto, which has never managed the crowd support for running events that cities like New York and Chicago have traditionally garnered.
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cities → ’ → York
They treat their marathons like a party; we treat ours like an inconvenience.
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we → treat → inconvenience
But maybe closing the streets for a bunch of happy young people having a great time will seem like a better idea than closing them for the lonely long-distance runners.
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closing → close → runners
As one of the latter, I’m here for it.
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I → ’m → it
And for running, it’s a bright one.
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it → ’ → running
Extremely online, that’s a given.
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that → ’ → ?
Inclusive, social, celebratory: I’ll take that as a victory lap.
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I → take → lap
The Aporia
