Flying in full support

Saturday I did something that I had never done before. I went to a marathon as a spectator. Now I have more mad respect for those who do it a lot. It was nice not having to get up and out at the crack of dawn or worry about race stuff. All I had to do was get to mile 19 and wait. Yeah, mile 19 was the best place to be because the race was in a gated community in the Savannah area.

We had signs. My friend Star had a friend and his daughter make signs. Hey, if you are going to watch and cheer you need signs. Plus my runner friend Barbara (who has run about 24 or 25 marathons) has never ever ever had a cheering section or signs. We gave her both. Other runners were jealous. They wanted the signs. They wanted the cheering squad. So we compromised. We cheered for EVERYBODY! We told some that they could pretend to be Barbara and that the signs were for them. Honestly, there were very few signs and cheering sections. It was a small race.

So we endured getting eaten alive by gnats, the heat, and the anticipation of Barbara's arrival. I think it was much harder than running. Okay, maybe not but it sure takes a lot of dedication and amusement in between runners. I wish we had some generic signs. I just did not think about it. In the races I have done there were more signs for everybody and just a few personal ones. I wish we had a Random stranger I'm proud of you, Run like you stole something, Touch here for turbo power, or some other sign to go with the Barbara ones. Lesson learned.

And we moved along the race route which surprised a few people. So we told them that we were stalking them. That made them smile. We got several 'thank yous'. It was certainly an honor to be out there witnessing the fruits of others' hard work and training. We saw tears. We saw sighs of relief when the finish line was spotted. The triumph of the human spirit. Each one had a story, each one had a challenge, each one had the victory at the end. And all of us had a few too many gnat bites.