Most true runners will agree that one of the best parts of running a race is the first celebratory beer after crossing the finish line.  While the amount of joy one feels from that first sip could very well correspond to the number of miles covered during the race, anyone who pins on a bib, laces up their sneakers and toes the starting line deserves that ice-cold sensation upon finishing.  The Tunnel2Towers 5k in New York City this past Sunday was no different.  After crossing the finish line, my father and I grabbed a water and began searching for the nearest beer vendor before the lines grew exponentially longer as more runners finished.  We searched and searched and couldn’t find the beer distributors that were ever present in past years.  After searching for 10-15 minutes and battling the post-race crowds we decided to make our way back to the hotel and indulge in that first post-race beer later in the afternoon.

That plan changed as we walked past O’Hara’s Restaurant & Pub on the corner of Cedar and Greenwich streets in Lower Manhattan.  From the outside O’Hara’s appeared quiet, but the door was open and we were thirsty.  We decided to stop in for a beer and then continue to our hotel.  As we entered, that quiet facade gave way to a pub packed with runners, firefighters and locals.  We managed to grab a seat at the bar and ordered a round of beers and congratulated each other on a third Tunnel2Towers 5k under our belts.

The gentleman next to us turned, saw our bibs and running clothes and we started to discuss the race and the story behind it.  He told us he was in town from New Jersey waiting for his wife and friends to finish the race and O’Hara’s was their meeting point.  The talk then turned to O’Hara’s and the storied history it attained in the months and years following September 11, 2001.  Little did my father and I know but O’Hara’s suffered a massive amount of damage on 9/11.  Through shear determination they re-opened their doors a mere seven months later.  All of this was put together into a scrapbook that is kept behind the bar.  The gentleman from New Jersey asked a bartender, whom he grew up with, to see the “9/11 book”.  That bartender turned to another and told him to “get the book”, at which point the second bartender turned and immediately pulled out a three to four inch thick scrapbook that he placed on the bar in front of my father and I.

We thumbed through the pages and were amazed by the photographs and news articles that lined each page.  Some we remembered from news coverage of that day, but many were personal photographs of the devastation around Ground Zero.  In addition, there were a number of letters from various law enforcement agencies around the country and politicians  expressing their gratitude for all that O’Hara’s did for the community after re-opening their doors.

We walked into O’Hara’s last Sunday looking for cold beer and a place to celebrate our accomplishments but left with a renewed appreciation for all those who sacrificed so much both on 9/11 and in the weeks, months and years that followed.

* I used my cellphone to take a picture of the above photograph that jumped out at me as we scanned the scrapbook at O’Hara’s last Sunday.  From the date stamped in the lower right-hand corner it appears to be from the third Anniversary of 9/11.  What strikes me the most is the joy and camaraderie seen on each individual’s face.