My man, the marathoner

I'm a little late getting this report out. I wanted to post pictures of DH at the finish line, but then the camera battery went dead. Oh, such is life.

Anyway, DH did awesome. He finished the race, all 26.2 miles of it. That still boggles my mind. He didn't finish it in the time he had hoped to, but still impressive to me. I think we'll be doing a few more marathons before it's all said and done. The hard part isn't the race, it's the training required.

So, if this is going to be a regular thing...me being a spectator of men/boys doing things, I need to get better at it. A few observations I had while trying to get to the cheering spots along the route. It's difficult to do, especially if you're trying to follow a speedy runner. It's a mad dash to get mile 20 and then the next mile when you and 5,000 other dedicated family and friends are attempting to do the same. So, next race I'm going to add an army of cheerers to cheer along the way. The person with the camera needs to be finish line, to catch the big finish --- and that gets to be me.

Driving around yesterday it was pretty clear that all of us drivers with our phones texting or coordinating were heading to the same blocked off streets and hoping to make it there on time. I gave up on mile 20 after catching DH at mile 14. Good thing we've got great friends who didn't mind walking and cheering on the blur as he passed.

And for future races, I'm going to use a tailgating philosophy. We watch you run, we cheer you on all morning. You're high on endorphins and we're hungry. You're getting a free cheeseburger and a massage, we're patiently waiting to hear the details of the race and eat lunch. You're trading stories and war wounds with your fellow runners, we're looking at the clock and getting sunburned.

So...next time, I'm packing a cooler. Adult beverages too. We'll go back to the car, sit at the parking lot. Eat a snack, have a cold beverage and then I don't care how long the runner takes to get his after race swag.