One woman even said to her friend, "We have cheerleaders! Nobody ever stays to cheer for us!" and they laughed. So we made sure to cheer for every single person, and a lot of people thanked us for staying there. It was pretty sad that those people in the back of the pack didn't have a single soul to cheer them on. When it was getting close to the point of reopening the tunnel to car traffic (and therefore, kicking off the runners/walkers that weren't meeting the pace requirement), Jerry and I were the ONLY people left on the side cheering. They didn't seem like they were having a hard time or anything, so I was surprised they would just quit like that at mile eight of the half-marathon. We were cheering for them, and they said, "Oh, thanks, but we're done doing this," and just walked out. The barricade next to us was open just a little, and we actually saw a few people who quit the race at that point. I'm not 100% sure the person I found in the results was her, but if it is, she stopped somewhere between the 8-10 mile mark of the half-marathon, and didn't finish. I later searched for her by first name on the results, because I was hoping to see that she finished. She seemed like she was really struggling (she was walking, and toward the back of the pack). Naturally, I started crying at the sight of them. I'm really glad we stayed! There was a large family next to us who got very excited when they saw their runner coming through, and when the woman saw them, she burst into tears and ran over to see them. Rather than moving on to another spirit station, I decided I wanted to stay there until the last person came through. It doesn't happen often, but I love to get to meet readers at races! If the people next to us wanted peace and quiet, they shouldn't have gone to a "spirit zone" of the marathon, where it's supposed to be loud.Īnyway, my favorite part of the day was when a reader, Kali, recognized me (she was running the international half-marathon) and came over to say hi and take a picture with me. My favorite spectators are the ones that are super loud and kind of crazy, making me laugh. Running 26.2 (or 13.1) miles can be pretty boring, and we look forward to the crowds to distract us. I think I can speak for most runners when I say that we LOVE loud spectators. I wish I'd have heard them, because I would have spoken up in Jerry's defense. Jerry just started dancing around and yelling louder. He told her, "I know he's loud, we can move somewhere else." Basically, a passive aggressive way of telling Jerry to shut up. A woman was complaining loudly to her husband that "the guy next to her" was "too loud and annoying".
Jerry later told me that the people next to him were talking about him. We were high-fiving the runners, and cheering for them by name, if they had their names on their shirts. The runners seemed to love him, and a lot of people went out of their way to go high-five him for his enthusiasm. Jerry is great in a situation like that, because he's loud. It seemed they would cheer only for the runner they were there to support, but other than that, they were pretty quiet. Maybe it's because I just got back from Chicago, but I was kind of surprised at how unenthusiastic the spectators were at that spot. I started bouncing around, ringing the cowbells, trying to stay warm. I had on jeans, three long-sleeved shirts, a hat, and gloves, but my feet and hands were numb. We found a spot to hang out for a while, and as soon as we got there, the wheelchair participants were coming through-perfect timing! I was absolutely freezing by that point. The People Mover took us right where we needed to be. Neither of us had ever used it before, but it's not a complicated set of trains or anything-it's just one train a few cars long that goes in circles around one track. We parked what ended up being kind of far from that spot, so we decided to try out the People Mover (a little train that goes overhead around the city). Mile eight is just after the runners come out of the tunnel from Canada back into the U.S. We decided just to skip the starting line and head right to mile eight. We were a little late getting out the door, so we arrived in Detroit at 7:00-which is when the race started. I brought a couple of signs (one said, "The faster you run, the sooner you're done" and the other was my favorite sign that I saw while running in Chicago: "Remember when you thought you couldn't do this?"), as well as a couple of cowbells for Jerry and I. I didn't want to miss out, though, so I decided to go cheer on the runners. I ran the race last year, and would have loved to run the half-marathon this year, but it wouldn't have been a good idea since I just ran the Chicago Marathon a week ago. I woke up at 5:00 this morning to get ready to drive up to Detroit to spectate the Detroit Free Press Marathon.
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