‘Ready, Set, Run!’ Author to Share Book About NYC Marathon at Run to Read 5K
By: Karen Dickhut
Even if you’re not a runner, just reading Leslie Kimmelman’s new book, “Ready, Set, Run! The Amazing New York City Marathon,” is enough to make you want to plan a trip to the Big Apple to cheer on the some-50,000 people from around the world who step forward every year to complete the 26.2-mile route through NYC’s five boroughs.
This picture book may target a younger audience, but the details are so fun and the illustrations by Jessie Hartland are so engaging that adults are sure to love it too. Just a few of the fun facts that Kimmelman highlights:
As the runners’ bodies heat up from the exercise, they shed their extra clothing, tossing it to the ground, and, in the end, all of those items — about 26 tons of clothing — are collected and donated to charity.
Many runners write their names on their shirts so people in the crowd can cheer them on by name.
Since 1979, a high school band stationed at Mile 9 has played the “Rocky” theme song on repeat until all of the runners have passed.
Often there are Japanese drummers stationed in the Bronx to urge runners along at the hardest part of the race.
Kimmelman, who will be one of two featured guests at this year’s Run to Read 5K Run & Walk on Saturday, Oct. 14, is not a runner herself, but she has been a huge fan of the NYC Marathon since she moved to the city as a young children’s book editor in the late 1980s. “I don’t run, but I’m a very good cheerer-on-er,” she said, with a laugh.
“Actually, the very first year I moved to New York after college, I lived in Brooklyn, and in those days, anyone could volunteer to help out . . . and I handed out cups of water to the runners as they passed our station, and it was so much fun, it totally hooked me on the marathon.”
These days, Kimmelman’s daughter lives in Brooklyn right along the marathon route and has a terrace view all the way to the Staten Island Bridge. “We can see the runners coming up Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, and it’s just an amazing view,” Leslie remarked, noting it was her daughter who suggested she write a book on the marathon.
Leslie watches the marathon every year, sometimes in person, other times via the local TV coverage.
“It’s so fun to watch! What I love about the marathon is that most of the people running in it are not marathon runners,” she said. “There is a small group of elite runners, a small group of elite wheelchair racers, and they are great to watch, but to me, the real fun of the marathon is that people just decide, ‘This is on my bucket list, or they just set it as a goal for themselves, and you get every kind of person running that race. Some of them walk it. Some of them are clearly not in running shape, and they just do it because they are inspired. And it is all so fun to watch.”
One of Leslie’s favorite things to do as a spectator is to cheer on the runners by name. “They will turn to you and smile or laugh,” she said. “It’s just a really good feeling.”
She dedicated the book “To the city that I love,” and she feels like the marathon is a reflection of everything that is good about New York. Last year’s event was held a few days before the mid-term elections, but you would never know it, she said. “There was not one sign of people disagreeing. Everyone comes together on this day, and everyone is upbeat, cheering on the city, cheering on the people. At its best, that’s what I like about New York. It’s sort of an all-embracing, all accepting kind of city.”
Having grown up in a small town not too far from Philadelphia, Pa., Leslie said it’s the huge cross-section of people that makes NYC such a great place to live and work. “It’s always busy and it’s always interesting,” she said.
If there’s a message to be had in “Ready, Set, Run!” Leslie said it’s to show that getting along with others is possible. “Here’s an event that works, and it works for people of every possible stripe, from all over the world. It shows what we should be doing every day, that everybody can get together.”
From Editor to Author to Sesame Workshop
Leslie began her career as a book editor right out of college. She worked for some big names — William Morrow, Disney-Hyperion and HarperCollins — before moving to Sesame Workshop, where she stayed for about 25 years before retiring just a couple of years ago.
She had always been an incredibly voracious reader, and that led her to a career in book editing, but after about four years of working on other people’s books, she was ready to write one of her own. “I sort of grew up thinking only famous people are authors, not everyone can be an author, but after a few years, I was like, I can do something like this.”
Looking back, Leslie said she knew she could write books, but what took her by surprise was the pace and success she found. “I did not expect to be writing book after book after book . . . and it sort of roller coaster-ed into a lot of books.”
To date, Leslie has written 50 of her own books, as well as many more under another name for Sesame Workshop, Disney and others.
“Writing a book never occurred to me as a kid, but I hope that’s changed today, and kids know now that anyone can write a book.”
That’s a message she will be happy to share with kids during her presentation here Saturday, Oct. 14, as our Run to Read featured author. She will give a virtual presentation on “Ready, Set, Run!” following a presentation by Rachael Leslie, a local runner who will actually participate in the NYC Marathon this fall and who got her start as a runner at our own Run to Read when she was younger. Their presentations will begin around 9 a.m. inside Washington Public Library.
This will be Leslie’s first presentation on “Ready, Set, Run!” which was only recently published in August.
Run to Read
Registrations for Run to Read will be accepted right up until the event begins. Race day registrations will begin at 7 a.m. We offer something for all ages and abilities — a short Baby Dash for ages 5 and under, a 1-mile Story Stroll, and a 5K Run/Walk. Runners take off first around 8 a.m., followed by walkers, then Story Strollers and Baby Dashers.
Everyone who registers takes home a new hard-back book of their choosing from tables full of various titles.