A Perfect NY Day!

It's so funny. I complain and complain and complain about the marathon season being too long, and then the week after the marathon? I'm out on the course cheering like crazy!

This past Sunday was the New York City marathon. And one of the mentees in my mentee group was running it, so Gina and I and some other TNT friends decided to go cheer. The marathon starts LATE. The elite women's start is at 9 am and then everyone else goes out based on their corral time. It would kind of stink if you were running it, because you have to be on Staten Island by 5am because they close off all of the bridge traffic. All those people, sitting around for 5 hours, waiting to run? Yuck!

Our meeting spot was at 116th Street and 5th Avenue, up in East Harlem. It was mile 22 and we figured it was a good place to see the elites and all of the other runners too. I got there at 10:00, followed shortly by my TNT buddies. We saw a lot of the wheelchair athletes...and then? YAY! We saw Paula Radcliffe, and once again I was starstruck. And then I saw Kara Goucher!!! She is my hero! So I was super super excited.

But I have to say, even though I get a thrill out of seeing all of the superstar runners, my favorite part of watching the marathon is cheering for the normal people...people with times like mine. :) I was also so excited when I saw a Roncker shirt in the crowd. I punched Pam in the arm and was like "HEY! I USED TO RUN WITH HIM!!!" and I started waving to him wildly and he smiled and waved back and then I was like "That was stupid. If I was running a three-hour marathon there is no way I would be waving to some girl that I may or may not remember."

We all went crazy with the cowbells and with our signs and of course yelled out everyone's name on their singlet. We went REALLY crazy when we saw other TNT people. And they usually waved back or smiled. And I think I pissed some people off too. Because when people started to walk I would say things like "You can do it! You look great! Just stick with it." Some people smiled at me, some people started running, but some people smiled at me like "Shut up lady. I don't see you running 22 miles." I also saw Jim, from last season's Biggest Loser (which I love).

It was a lot of fun. We stayed till almost the very end (4:30ish?) and we were the only people left cheering. And now all of us have sore throats :)