Orchard Street Runners // Sunday Special
Orchard Street Runners founder Joe DiNoto poses for a portrait moments before sending a group of runners along an unsanctioned half-marathon race through the heart of Manhattan.
When I asked @OrchardStreetRunners founder Joe DiNoto what the race route was, he responded, “There isn’t one.”
I quickly learned that the Orchard Street Runners’ Sunday Special isn’t your hometown Turkey Trot. This isn’t your normal road race. In fact, it technically isn’t even a road race: it’s unsanctioned. No mile markers, no water stations, no fans. The initial group of runners quickly thins out as they forge their own routes from the uptown start, through Manhattan, to the finish - about 12 miles away depending on how they get there and whether they stop. For anything.
It’s perhaps a primal take on a mainstream hobby. Eliminate the element of a controlled environment to create a risk and thrill that doesn’t exist in a traditionally organized race. Perhaps therein lies the addiction, the fix of a different level of adrenaline. Head on a swivel, heightened awareness. Red lights are suggested warnings. Bus lanes become game trails. Cars and trucks become predators. All of this might be just enough to rekindle survival instincts, to feel a little more alive.
The snow and cold are the easy part.
