Thursday, May 04, 2006

CMM Part 3: The Best Hecklers Ever!!

I swear it took me less time to run the half than it has to write my report! Pics take forever!!

So once I crossed the finish line I grabbed some water and moved off to the side to wait for Brent. They did a great job of making the finisher's area larger this year, last year it was a human traffic jam! I saw the owner of our local Fleet Feet store come through, and I talked to her for a minute. She seemed a little upset - she was supposed to run the full but I guess something went wrong so she followed the half course instead. And then just a couple minutes later Brent came through! Yeah! He finished in 1:55, a new PR by 2 minutes. We grabbed some food and our medals, had our picture made (which looks TERRIBLE!) and used the porta-potty. No lines this time, yeaaaaah!

We headed over to the marathon finish line. The first couple of men had already finished, but we got to see the first 3 women finish and also the first local runner. Very cool!! It was getting really sunny so we decided to head back to the car and drive over to the Shelby Park area where we could be around Mile 21.5/25 to cheer for the marathoners. The road closures made it pretty difficult so we got turned around a few times and could always see runners around us! Finally we made it exactly where we wanted to be.









We were right before the 22 mile marker which is also right before the 25 mile marker. The course goes into Shelby Park and then back out for the finish. We camped out in the middle of a hill. Right as we got there the 4 hr pace group went through. Perfect!! It's hard to know what to say to people at mile 21 of a marathon. So many people looked absolutely spent. We saw vomiting, cramping, the works. The wind was really starting to pick up, I felt so bad for the marathoners. We shouted "Great job" and "Looking strong" to a lot of people that really weren't looking strong. We were also scoping out anyone who was wearing an orange jersey, which is the color Lana and Michele had said they would be wearing. Somehow we missed Lana and a coworker of mine on their way into Shelby Park, but the coworker said he saw us! We saw him as he came back out and cheered for him. It turns out his family wasn't even able to come down and watch, so we were his only cheering squad!! He said that really helped, so we felt good about it. I remember how much each and every spectator meant to me in Miami, especially during the upper miles. It's nice to not feel so alone out there. Right after the 4:15 pace group but before the 4:30 Michelle ran up and introduced herself to us!! Yeah!!!! It was very exciting and happened super fast. Idiots that we are we forgot to take a pic! We wished her well and kept on cheering. She looked great and kept on trucking. Ambulances would pass through from time to time, so we'd yell out "Ignore the ambulances, they're not here for you!" We had a random assortment of goofy cheers. "Free water up ahead!" "It's downhill on the other side!". We'd compliment people's outfits and if you had your name on your jersey we were all about cheering for that! A few minutes later I picked David out of the crowd!! We jumped in and walked with him up to the water stop. He was in a great mood, I don't think I've ever seen him not smiling at a race! A few more minutes passed by and the crowd headed into Shelby Park was starting to thin out. We spotted another coworker and his dad so we hopped in and walked them to the top of the hill. At this point we'd seen everyone except for Lana. We were still watching for orange jerseys coming out of Shelby Park, and we finally spotted one! We thought it was Michelle coming back out but it turns out it was really Lana. We jumped up and down and cheered some more. We stood around for a while and ended up cheering for two hours. We were absolutely hoarse and sunburned by this point so we decided to head back home.

What about this guy? He carried this stupid flag for 26.2 miles. He yelled out something about a birthday when we cheered for him. It turns out it was Dale Earn.'s birthday. We also saw Superman, some hula girls, and a guy running in flip flops. Interesting!!

So this weekend is the Flying Pig in Cincinnati! Brent and I are both running the half. I'm doing this one more as a fun training run where you get a medal, so I really don't plan to push all out for the whole race. My brother lives in Cincinnati so we'll be staying with him and his family. He's participating in the relay, and it will be his first race EVER! He's 39. I think his leg is about 6 miles. He's a little nervous but plans on taking it slow and easy. The race starts at SIX A.M! That's just nuts. And that's 5 AM our time (Central). Geez!! I need to start thinking about these things when I sign us up for races!

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend! I know this is the big Broad Street Run up in Philly, the race Shore Turtle's been training for for a while. Good luck!!!

16 Comments:

At 9:04 PM, Blogger Cliff said...

U guys really made the race fun.

I saw the pic where u were holding the sign and all the ppl racing are sturggling....good stuff for supporting them.

 
At 5:44 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Each and Every specator and cheer-person is appreciated. And even though we know that "We don't Look Strong" it the Jedi mind trick that gets us through a couple more steps.

You should see some interesting character at The Pig this weekend...

 
At 7:15 AM, Blogger Legs and Wings said...

Wacky and interesting and wonderful. You make running fun Rae. Excellent race report(s)!

 
At 12:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You guys are the best! It is friends cheering you on that really help. Good luck this weekend. Can't wait to read the report.

 
At 12:37 PM, Blogger Michele said...

Good luck at the pig this weekend! Look forward to another great race report.

 
At 12:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

good luck this weekend, have fun!

We'll be heading out to Cinci in June (Johnny's dad lives across the river in Kentucky) - and I'll be doing a 50k! Last year, there were two woman from Murfreesboro who did it. And at Zane Grey last weekend, there were a few folks from there too!

 
At 2:42 PM, Blogger Afternoon Tea With Oranges said...

Good luck in Cinci!!

And thanks sooo much for cheering us on at that marathon. You are so right that each and every spectator is appreciated!

Great race report, too!

 
At 4:29 PM, Blogger BuckeyeRunner said...

Great pics from the race! Good luck at the pig this weekend. Sounds like it will be a fun race. There should be lots of cool pig paraphernalia (sp?) to buy! Have fun and safe travels!

 
At 5:39 PM, Blogger ShoreTurtle said...

Thanks for the shoutout! I hope that you have a great time this weekend in Cinci. Have your picture made with one of the flying pigs.

 
At 6:45 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Good luck in another half this weekend. You will have all your blogging posts settled up for next week if you can find the time to recap everything again for us.

 
At 8:34 PM, Blogger Bevan said...

Thanks so much for your comments in my blog! Congrats to you on finishing your race too! :) The older man running definitely gave me some motivation to keep going - I can only hope that by the time I make it to my mid-80s I am doing as well as he is! Thanks again for your comments - running with 20-some thousand people was such an amazing experience. It is nice to put some faces with the numbers. Best wishes!

 
At 12:27 PM, Blogger katie @ www.katierosefitness.com said...

I'm a new RBF and have gotten a lot of inspiration from your blogs! Thanks:)

 
At 4:56 PM, Blogger Darrell said...

You two are so awesome to run the half then spend the rest of the day cheering on coworkers and the RBF. Way to be. Hope the Pig is fun!

 
At 10:12 AM, Blogger David said...

I envy your lifestyle revolving around running trips amd visits with RBF. Take advantage of it. You're very lucky.

 
At 2:14 PM, Blogger Hilda said...

Now if I run and hear people saying looking strong, I would think, maybe they are lying!!haha

How nice to see the marathoners! I haven't seen the first yet...

 
At 9:31 PM, Blogger Dawn - Pink Chick Tris said...

Hubby's a #3 fan as well. We have his stuff everywhere down in the "sports room".

 

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