“You’ve got this, Joeren.” “Allez la France.” “Go, Stefania.” “Viva Mexico.” “You can do it, FDNY” “Keep it up, Marie.” If you were running in, volunteering for or like me cheering from the sidelines the New York City Marathon this past Sunday, you will most certainly have been infused with that phenomenal civic spirit which only this event can convey with such power. Anyone remotely close to the neighborhoods which this 26.219 mile/42.195 kilometer course traverses will have been drawn towards and carried away by the extraordinary ardor with which a million people expressed their enthusiasm for what was happening before their eyes and often beneath their feet.
Gareth Evans, parent, and Philippe Pavis, Math Teacher.
The heroes of the day were the 50,000 brave and determined marathoners of the 2015 edition. Hailing from 130 countries and ranging in age from 18 to 94, they had chosen to take up one of the most physically and mentally demanding challenges imaginable. Some competed to win; all strived to surpass themselves. A large number also championed a charitable cause: school construction in less economically developed regions of the globe; research into cures for cancer; college counseling for underserved youth, to name but three non-profit initiatives which members of our own LFNY community ran to support.
Life is most meaningful when we work as hard as we can to roll back the frontiers of possibility, for ourselves, and more important still, for others.
Grete Waitz, the Norwegian educator who won nine consecutive NYC Marathons back in the 1980s, once affirmed: “New York is the marathon that all the biggest stars want to win, but has also been the stage for an array of human stories more vast than any other sporting event.” And there were indeed some 50,000 individual narratives being woven on November 1; yet they were especially uplifting because they were being so deliberately interlaced with the broader story of human existence as a whole, as if to say: life is most meaningful when we work as hard as we can to roll back the frontiers of possibility, for ourselves, and more important still, for others.
15 Runners from the LFNY
Our deepest congratulations and gratitude to the four teachers and eleven parents from the Lycée Français de New York who we know to have participated in this year’s race: as we make every conceivable effort to provide our students with the education they deserve, these runners are models for us all. Sincere thanks to the eight members of the LFNY faculty who signed up to help out at the fluid stations, providing water, nutrition and encouragement to athletes at critical junctures like that of 115th Street. Heartfelt appreciation too to the many Lycée Français de New York families who carried signposts, clapped for runners and by their very presence contributed to that great celebration of the human will which was the New York City Marathon 2015.
ConallMcGonagle and Amira Amro, parents at the school.
Last Sunday morning, someone called out “Alexis,” using the French pronunciation of this word. Standing on the corner of 75th and 1st, I could find neither the runner being applauded nor the person applauding him amid the crowd at hand, but having recently been pouring over Democracy in America, I thought immediately of another impressive bearer of that name, Alexis de Tocqueville, and something this 19th century French commentator had once observed about the beauty of freedom in action. As you may have already heard me quote, when people come together because they share the same values and beliefs and decide as a group to make a difference in their own lives and those of their fellow human beings, de Tocqueville argued, “the heart is enlarged and the human mind is developed.”
Featured photo credit: Jean-Pierre Durand www.photorun.NET
About the Author :
Sean Lynch was Head of School at the Lycée Français de New York from 2011 to 2018, after having spent 15 years at another French bilingual school outside of Paris: the Lycée International de St. Germain-en-Laye. Holding both French and American nationalities, educated in France (Sciences Po Paris) and the United States (Yale), and as the proud husband of a French-American spouse and father of two French-American daughters, Sean Lynch has spent his entire professional and personal life at the junction between the languages, cultures and educational systems of France and the United States. In addition to being passionate about education, he loves everything related to the mountains, particularly the Parc National du Mercantour.