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!!!