Ordinary People, Part II

This is a continuation from the previous post.

As I was driving to the race, I called Katie and AmyK, so that I could join them and cheer on our friends. They were driving east on 94 and apparently traffic was stopped. I hate stop and go traffic, so took Franklin Ave., thinking I could cross the bridge and meet them at St. Thomas. I was also hoping to see Firefly Denise there, even though I wasn't sure I'd recognize her.

While I was approaching the Franklin Ave. bridge, which spans the Mississippi, I saw the marathon runners. This was mile 19, and the racers run across the bridge to enter St. Paul. I mistakenly assumed that the entire bridge was closed, but only half of it was. By the time I discovered my error, I was standing at Mile 19, so decided to just stay there. I didn't want to miss Marcia and company.

The stretch from miles 13 to 19 is a tough one. And you go up a hill just before mile 19. I stood at the top of the hill and just cheered on, offering support to the runners. The temperature was getting hot and they were struggling.

The first person I saw was Dree. She told me her knee hurt, but I didn't have anything to offer her and kicked myself for not bringing any Tylenol. Dree fell off her bike to avoid being hit by a car on the previous Thursday, and hurt her knee then. She seemed OK at the beginning of the race, but 19 miles is hard even on a non-injured knee.

Cheryl doesn't even look tired at this point.

Marcia's enthusiasm seems to be waning. She said her neck hurt. She took the ice cubes I had brought and they gave her some relief.

Why is AmyBee laughing? Because otherwise she'd be crying. Like Marcia, she was struggling at this mile.

I waiting for a little while after AmyBee passed by, but didn't see anybody else. So I walked back to my car and stopped by a store to pick up a bag of ice for the finishers. Then I drove to St. Paul and stood by the finish line.

Here are the finishers, just steps away from the finish line:
Cheryl, 5:42:03

Marcia: 5:43:59

Dree: 5:47:30. She wasn't able to run at this point; that's an ice pack wrapped around her knee. But I'm happy that she finished.

AmyBee: 5:57:49

I hung around with them afterwards, and we hooked up with Nat, who had run the 10 miler along with Marcia's husband. Here's a pic of the happy-to-be-finished runners:

From left: Nat, Cheryl, AmyBee, Marcia, Marty

I also saw Dree recovering. Don't you just love the fuzzy slippers. :-)
Great job, marathoners!