How to Live Your Marathon Again Through Flickr

Big marathons like London, Chicago, and New York attract different types of runners.

There are the pros who are out there to win fame and fortune. In the London Marathon, the top runners share $295,000 in prize money.

There are the weekend warriors who use marathons to prove that they still “got it”.

The goal makers who see marathons as the lifetime equivalent of scaling Mount Everest.

The weight loss group who think training will help them lose weight (it might not).

The humanitarians who do the marathon for some worthy cause.

And finally, there are the “stunt runners”. These are the costumed crazies who add an extra dimension of wackiness to the race by dressing up as their favorite superhero, animal or can of beans. Incidentally, jogglers unfairly get lumped in with stunt runners but I’ll save that rant for another day.

Missing Your Marathon

The thing about stunt runners is that they are often the most interesting runners in the race. I know many running purists despise these types. They think costumed runners make a mockery of the sport. These types of people need to take a chill pill and quit taking life so seriously. The idea of running for 26.2 miles for no apparent reason is so silly that it’s not possible to make it too silly. That’s just this stunt runners opinion.

More importantly, the crowds watching the marathon just love stunt runners. And you know what, I love ’em too! When I’m out there doing a marathon, I like to see the clever costumes or bits that people come up with. It makes the race more fun to watch. Marathons are like parades and people want to see interesting things in a parade.

Unfortunately, when you’re running a marathon you often miss the best stunt runners. Particularly if you are a fast runner. The stunt runners are usually the ones finishing in 5 or more hours and unless you’re back there with them, you miss ’em. Even as a spectator you miss most of them as your head keeps whipping back and forth searching for your loved one.

Reliving Your Marathon

Here’s a thing you can do to experience the marathon that you missed. Go look online at all the pictures that people took of the event. This is great fun and you might even catch a picture of yourself. The best spot that I found for oogling other people’s pictures of your event is Flickr.com. Here, you can find thousands of pictures taken from almost every marathon. Just go to the search button and type your race. For me it was “London Marathon”. Then I sorted the pictures by date to make sure I saw just the latest photos.

It’s great fun and you discover all kinds of wacky runners. You can even use Flickr.com to post your own pictures for free. You must try it out.

London Marathon Costumes

The London Marathon had some of the craziest costumes I’ve seen. People were running in Rhino suits and Camel outfits, a Borat swimsuit, mr taco, a can of beans, superhero suits, banana, gorilla, Stormtroupers, and more. Check out some of these pictures. And go to Flickr to see more.