Standing along the dusty banks of The Ventura River Trail this past Sunday morning, very early and very cold, I could not help but think of Norman Maclean’s novella “A River Runs Through It.”
Instead of a stream teeming with trout, a running river of humanity was flowing through the tree-line bike path for the annual Ventura Marathon, Half-Marathon and 5K.
As I cheered for my son and future daughter-in-law, as well as for the other entrants in all three events, a quote from Maclean’s masterpiece came to mind – although I had to look it up in order to get it exactly right here: “The fisherman even has a phrase to describe what he does when he studies the patterns of a river. He says he is ‘reading the water’, and perhaps to tell his stories he has to do much the same thing.”
My daughter-in-law Jess epitomized the spirit of the day!
It struck me there were surely 2,511 different stories taking place on this morning, one for each entrant. For example, my son’s fiancé was running her first half-marathon, and successfully; he was running his umpteenth 13.1-miler, but first since battling a year-long foot injury, and with a PR; and hometown star Garrett Reynolds was making his marathon debut with a swift-as-a-salmon-heading-downstream time of 2 hours, 23 minutes.
“Reading the water” revealed many, many more stories. Such as a mother who, no matter how fast she ran, always remained one stride behind her sleeping baby in a running stroller. Likewise, a father pushed a wide-eyed child who seemed as gleeful as if he were riding in a bobsled.
Stories. A grandfatherly man with his race bib pinned to a pink T-shirt in honor of breast cancer awareness. Surely some runners were heroically battling cancer at this very moment and others were cancer survivors.
Stories. A 10-year-old girl and a 76-year-old woman finished the marathon and also an 83-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy. In the 5K, an 8-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl and 75-year-old woman and 84-year-old man. The half-marathon, which featured the most stories with 1,429, similarly spanned many generations.
Stories. One spectator along the river route was especially memorable. I dare say he cheered for each and every single runner, giving his smile to – and putting a smile on – all 2,511 faces. Honestly, I don’t know how he did not go hoarse yet for two hours he never let up.
Indeed, whether the runner was floating speedily on winged feet or struggling with sinking spirits, in a pleasant southern accent he tirelessly offered encouragement: “Only two more miles! … Relax your face… Lift your knees… You’ve got this! … You’re a winner!”
Other spectators likewise applauded for the 10K runners as wholeheartedly as for half-marathoners and marathoners, and cheered for the swift as loudly as for the slow. In return the runners smiled or gave a thumbs-up sign or with huffing breaths said, “Thank you.” Each in-person exchange was worth a thousand “Likes” on social media.
Eventually, the three streams – the marathon, which started at sunrise; half-marathon, beginning half an hour later, halfway down the trail; and 5K, starting still nearer the ocean – all merged into one river that flowed through the finish chute at Ventura Unified School District headquarters.
Arriving at the homestretch, every runner, regardless their time or distance raced, was greeted with a shout-out by name on PA system and rewarded with cheers from the throng of spectators. As it should be, for each of the 2,511 shining faces had earned a new story to tell.
No trout stream was ever more beautiful than this running river.
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Essay copyrights Woody Woodburn
Woody writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @woodywoodburn. His SIGNED books are available at www.WoodyWoodburn.com.
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