Yesterday Michele and I walked from downtown out to the top of Heartbreak
Hill, to lend some support to the marathoners. The weather was just
perfect for being a spectator, but that meant it was warm for the runners.
We had everyone's race number from Allan's list and some more that we
looked up of people we knew from EB and Pfizer to look for. About 20
people in all. We saw 3, and at that Mike saw us and yelled - we didn't
spot him until he shouted. It's so hard to find people in the crowd. I
had thought with two of us, we'd manage to see more of our friends, but we
didn't.
The numbers only help in that you know roughly when to look for different
people by the general numbers that are streaming by. We did see Joe,
running about 25 minutes behind what he had told me. He gave us a thumbs
up but from his look I'd say it was more for us being there than for the
way he felt. :( And we saw Mike Sheldon and Andy Katz, more or less on
schedule, both seeming quite happy at the top of the hill.
We really enjoyed watching for everyone. For everyone we didn't see, we
were there and clapping and cheering, so even though we didn't see you, we
were helping :-)
I managed to get pictures of the wheelchair, women's, and men's leaders as
they came up the hill. Some of them came out very nicely. I'll try to
get them posted later tonight. Sorry, I didn't get any pics of Andy, Mike
or Joe - they were there so quickly and then gone I just couldn't get a
shot that quickly.
One thing struck me as we were watching. Everyone on the course from
elite down to the slowest runners, were experiencing the same variety of
good and bad on the hill. Some of the elite runners were really
struggling up the hill, others moved like they didn't even notice it. One
probably masters elite woman I told Michele "She looks really warm" and
sure enough, just past us she took a cup of water from a spectator and
dumped it over her head. The lead group of men, 5 or six strong, came
powering up the hill like an express train. I heard more than one person
(including both of us) just exclaim "Wow!" Very impressive. Right behind
that group, just a few strides back, Alan Culpepper was also looking very
strong up the hill. I thought at the time if he was that close then, he
should be able to finish well. Turns out he did.
We watched for quite a while, and then walked back to downtown again. We
had a great weekend, and made hotel reservations for next year. So now
one of us has to qualify :-)
Dave