It was soooooo hot! I was seriously starting to count how many miles I had left, which was pretty bad, seeing as that I was only at mile 8. The only redeeming thing was that I knew I was entering Boy's Town and I had heard that this was one of the really great spots on the course. I was already looking for the drag show. This year, they had a bunch of men with toy guns dancing to RuPaul's "Supermodel". It was AWESOME! It made me laugh and smile which made me forget how I wanted to stop, which was good.
By this point though, there was already a lot of talk about missing water at the aid stations, so I vowed to get water whenever I could.
I still had 3 miles to see my family.
At the next water stop I saw lots of Gatorade but no water. I ran past the Gatorade. The volunteers kept saying "the water's down that way". But I kept running and all I saw were empty tables. No water.
Luckily there was a girl who showed up next to me with a water bottle. She asked if I had gotten any at the last stop and when I said no, she handed it to me. I thought that was so nice, and passed the bottle onto another guy who didn't get any after I had some.
At mile 11 I see Bill and my family. I was glad that just Bill came up to me. I didn't want to freak out my family...I told him "they don't have any water for us!" I think I sounded kind of more desperate than I wanted to. He gave me a water bottle. He said they knew about it. He had gone to Walgreens and bought a bunch of water and was handing it to the runners. How sweet! I also told him I was walking a little bit of every other mile because it was just too awful. I also told him that I was "Plan C-ing it". My goal now was just to finish.
I later realized Bill was not the only one being kind. The spectators were wonderful. They were bringing hoses into the street to hose us down, bringing us water from their houses and restaurants and bringing us bags of ice. Not to mention they were cheering us all on. I was so glad I wrote my name on my shirt. Everyone who read it cheered me on by name. Even when I was walking. One lady cracked me up when she said "Come on Emily! It's okay to take a break, girl, it's okay. Just don't take too long of a break. Get back to running, Emily!" If you walked by the bands playing and they saw your name, they worked you into the song they were singing. :)
Surprise! I saw my family at mile 16! I was so glad! I didn't think I would see them until 25, so it was a really great surprise. Bill said I looked a lot better. I felt better at that point. I was much more hydrated because the last two water stops had water AND people were passing around bottles by that point. I was back running again!
I have to admit, I did feel a LITTLE dizzy a few times. But every time that happened I stopped, and walked, and rehydrated. It was not really that different than my training runs this summer. As long as I had water and paced myself I was okay.
At the next water stop they had cups but no water.
Sometime between mile 18-19 I heard someone talking about them shutting the marathon down. I also saw a cop standing in the middle of the road. He was yelling at us. I thought he was saying "STOP WALKING! STOP WALKING!" and it was making me mad because I kept thinking 'Hey buddy, you try running 18 miles in this heat without walking.' In light of everything that happened afterwards I think he might have been saying "START walking!"
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