So I keep wanting to do the Tunnel to Towers Run and unfortunately I keep missing it. (Someone needs to come up with a calendar (hopefully with ical-export capacity so you can plug in to Google Calendar) that shows all NYC-area running events, and not just the ones sponsored by NYRR … this one didn’t even show up on the Flyers calendar, for some reason.
Anyway so the run honors Firefighter Steve Siller, who on Sept. 11 ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel with all his gear. He was last seen alive on West and Vesey Streets. So I again didn’t manage to do the run this year, but did run out in the opposite direction to see people as they finished … some of whom were carrying backpacks I guess to represent the firefighting gear Siller carried. Bringing up the rear was this contingent of firefighters, who carried banners with the faces of the 343 firefighters who perished that day.
It was a very long line.
As they marched past Ground Zero to the sound of bagpipes I watched from the side of the street with a small contingent of people … just sorta standing there and trying to be respectful. I snapped this photo. Then I started running again. I was above the march, on a pedestrian overpass headed home when the firefighters below me started turned in to the end of the race where there was a larger crowd gathered. Everyone started clapping, in this somber way. It was pretty sad and powerful.
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