How I Injured Myself Watching the Boston Marathon

I want to tell you all about how much fun it was to watch the Boston Marathon, and brag about how well my sister ran it.

The thing is, I'm somewhat distracted by the pain in my left shoulder.  Yes, my friends, I managed to injure myself spectating. 

My mother had woken up at 6:00 am to stake out our spot about half a mile from the finish.  It was a good spot at the top of a hill (not Heartbreak Hill, but a hill nonetheless) and right before a turn.  When I joined her a little after 10:00, people were starting to gather.  The first wave of runners started at 10:00, so there was still plenty of time and plenty of room.  Still, my mother and I stuck to our spots, right behind the metal railing. 

Eventually, the wheelchair athletes started to race by.  People went nuts.  And then we saw Teyba Erkesso (2:26:11) and Tatyana Pushkareva (2:26:14) zip past.  I had such good footage of this, and of the men, too, but when things got crazy, I somehow managed to hit "delete all" on my camera.  So, you'll have to take my word for it, but these people are fast.  I mean, I know I'm slow, but I just ran a half marathon in 2:15.  And these women ran a full in just over that.  Wow. 

After the super fast people came by, the really really fast people started to trickle in.  That's when it got crowded.  At that point, I realized that I was pressed against the metal rail.  Someone's grandma was squished behind me for ages, ringing her cowbell against my butt, but there really wasn't much I could do about it.  For much of the time, I couldn't turn around to talk to my dad behind me.  I couldn't even get my hand into my purse to check my cell phone.  I wasn't really thinking about that, though.  Everyone was cheering and happy, and so I just kept looking left to where the runners were coming from.  I guess I don't usually spend so much time twisting to the left.  Hence, the strained muscles.  So lame.

Anyway, here's what it looked and sounded like from the sidelines:

The girls you hear shrieking were local college students, and they shrieked for everyone.  They were very entertaining.

We were supposed to get updates via text message telling us where my sister was, but those never came.  My dad was able to look it up online, but for some reason I don't totally understand, the online updates were in kilometers.  Now, I know that a kilometer is about 2/3 of a mile, and that a 5K race is about 3.1 miles.  Still, who wants to do math while watching a marathon?  Fortunately, they also gave her projected finished time, and since we were close to the finish and we knew when she started, we more or less knew when she was coming.  And here she is (green tank top), looking totally fine half a mile to the finish, and very happy after:

 3:48 something.  Pretty darn fast.

 

 -Gym Belle-