A Hit Single

I have run in the Tunnel to Towers 5K in New York City every September since 2010.  For me, and I presume for most of - if not all of - the other participants, it is a uniquely moving experience every time I do it.  

Margaret and I spend Tunnel to Towers weekend in Lower Manhattan.  We have quite a nice little tradition, which we share with Gidg and Jeff annually and any other friends who might join us in a particular year.  In 2019, Yvette, Pete, Brooke, and Mike all did. 

We arrive in Lower Manhattan mid-afternoon on Saturday and after picking up our race garb and checking into our hotel, the group plans its rendezvous at the W Hotel Downtown, which has quite a nice little bar on either its 5th or 6th floor.  At some point after cocktails, we all retreat to our respective hotel rooms to rest and recharge before our annual T2T 5K Eve dinner at O'Hara's. 

Between hotel check-in and the W Bar rallying point, Margaret and I spend a bit of time at the National September 11 Memorial, which opened in the footprint of the Twin Towers on the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.  It has been an integral part of our T2T experience since we walked through it for the first time on T2T weekend in 2011.  We were among the thousands of people who were founding donors/sponsors of the National September 11 Museum, which opened in the Spring of 2014, and we took our first visit to it on T2T weekend in 2014.  If you have never visited the Memorial or toured the Museum, I cannot recommend them to you passionately enough.  The experience of visiting each is extraordinary and visceral.  

On our annual pilgrimage to the Memorial, we place small American flags at the names of several individuals, each of whom had a relationship either to one of us or to a family member or a friend.  Several years ago, after reading a story about the ten members of the CU Boulder family who were killed on September 11, 2001, Margaret and I added the fallen Buffs to the roster of those whose memory we honor.  At their names, the little American flag is accompanied by a smaller black flag on which, in gold letters under Ralphie, are the words "KEEP CALM AND GO BUFFS".  We do it for no reason other than to honor the memory of my ten fellow Buff alums along with the other six people we honor.  

Well, truth be told, we do it for one other, critically important reason.  It makes us feel good. 

In October, 2019 I was honored and humbled by the publication of a piece in the on-line magazine that the CU Boulder College of Arts and Sciences produces, which piece Clay Evans authored.  The piece is entitled "Message for 9/11 fallen:  Keep Calm and Go Buffs".   To the extent that Clay Evans portrayed someone who is a decidedly mediocre human being in a significantly more flattering light, it is a remarkable piece of writing. I shall always cherish it. 

Besides, it took me more than a half-century to do a single thing worthy of a single written word.  I am fairly certain that it will take me at least that long to do something worthy of a sequel.

-AK