Tunnel To Towers Run 2012

  The Tunnel To Towers 5-K Run should be experienced by every runner, at least once. It's one of my favorite activities of the year.
   Started in 2002, the race re-traces the steps of New York City firefighter Stephen Siller, who, with traffic blocked, ran from Brooklyn to the Twin Towers, while off-duty, only to perish in the building collapse on Sept 11th, 2001.
    Tunnel To Towers benefits the Steven Siller Memorial Foundation, which is involved in numerous causes for 9/11 first responders and military veterans.
     I do it with my son and brother-in-law. The race is really more of an event than a 5-K - it attracted 30,000  people this year, and when the crowd siphons through the narrow Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, you can do little more than march in place.
     But that's not the point. It's awe-inspiring - New York City at it's finest. Literally thousands of West Point cadets, uniformed FDNY members, and members of every branch of the military, many running in formation. The most touching is the contingent of Wounded Warriors, surrounded by friends and family, as they traverse the distance on artiificial limbs, or in wheeelchairs.
     You'll see shirts of fire companies and police department from around the country, and beyond. A large group of people come from the London Fire Department every year!
     Exiting the tunnel, the road is lined with FDNY members, in dress uniform, holding portraits of each of their 343 brethren who died that day. There's a sea of American flags all around, and if you look down the river, the Verazzano Bridge and Statue of Liberty are in the distance. I can't think of a day when I feel prouder, and luckier, to be born in this country!
      The finish is at Ground Zero, and above on this clear, September morning, was the new Liberty Towers, almost completed, rising above the few, powdery clouds in the sky.
      No matter where you are reading this blog, try to run the Tunnel To Towers one year!