Seriously, New York City has to be the most exciting city in the world.

This weekend, Halloween on Saturday rolled straight into the NYC Marathon on Sunday.

One day people were running around pretending to be dead. The next, they were running 26.2 miles and presumably wondering whether that might have been the easier option.

The sidewalks were packed. Costumed children, costumed dogs, costumed adults. Marathon participants wearing race paraphernalia and the unmistakable air of people who had voluntarily signed up for something I would require anesthesia to attempt.

There was excitement everywhere. That wonderful New York feeling that something is happening on every block and, for once, it isn’t just scaffolding going up.

And somehow, I ended up in Times Square.

I know. Those of us who live here generally treat Times Square like a relative’s destination wedding. We need a very good reason to go and an exit strategy.

Mine was an inexpensive ticket to School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play. The charming comedy-drama explores adolescent social cliques, colorism, classism and Western identity. An affordable theater ticket in Manhattan is enough to make me reconsider several deeply held principles…avoid Times Square except when absolutely necessary.

What surprised me was the number of adults roaming around in costume. Horror movie characters everywhere. People you would normally cross the street to avoid, except that across the street there were more of them.

Then there were women in outfits so scant and so difficult to identify that I wasn’t entirely sure what they were supposed to be. I considered asking, but felt it was a conversation neither of us needed.

At least the dogs were easy to interpret. A dachshund dressed as a hot dog leaves very little room for debate.

The best part was the sheer mixture of humanity.

Sunday brought the marathon, and the city had an entirely different reason to fill the streets.

There is something deeply moving about people cheering for complete strangers. No introduction necessary. No common background required. Just someone pushing forward and someone else yelling, “You’ve got this!”

We could use a little more of that.

New York can exhaust you. It is loud, expensive, crowded, and frequently seems determined to test how much you can tolerate before lunch.

Then you have a weekend like this. perfect weather, theater, costumes, dogs with better outfits than yours, and thousands of people showing up to applaud other people for trying.

You remember why you love it.

By the way, I did my own endurance event.

Times Square. On Halloween.

I’m still waiting for my medal.