Marathoning!!!! - Brady

Well. My FABULOUS, ATHLETIC, DETERMINED, SUPERSTAR sisters finished a marathon today! Wahoo!

I hope they take some time and describe their experiences here when they get a chance. But right now I'm going to tell you what my day as a superfan was like.

I set my alarm for 7:15 a.m. - much later than my sisters' wakeup call! I quickly got dressed, ate breakfast, gathered my things, and barked at Kevin to hurry up and get ready. (I regret my impatience, Kevin. Sorry about that.) I ended up leaving on my own to walk the few blocks to our meet-up point, and Kevin caught up with me about 10 minutes later.

I waited at Sheridan and Oakdale for my two favorite ladies to run by. I'd made a sign for each of them the day before, which I somehow ripped before anybody actually saw it. Too excited, I guess.

(Oh, and Powerpack is Kevin and my little nickname for Kelly. She's small and compact. She always keeps chugging along. She just hammers out runs, no matter the length, the speed, the weather, or how much gouda cheese she ate the night before.) 

After waiting and waiting and waiting in the cold, we saw Kelly come out of the crowd. It happened so fast we didn't get a picture of it, but I was so excited to see her! She looked great!

We were able to capture Amy as she cruised by about half an hour later. In the third picture below, look for the cute blondie in black and teal waving at us.

After we saw Amy we power walked two blocks west to catch the runners as they headed south. We knew we were too late to see Kelly, but we did catch the Amester again. We cheered her on and then made a mad dash for coffee and the red line. We were headed all the way down to Chinatown to see our girls as they ran the late miles of the race. 

So here's where my day got a little stressful. First of all, the red line was much more crowded and took much longer to get us to Chinatown than I expected. When we finally arrived at our station, I was silently (or not so silently) cursing the slow moving crowds around me as I tried to speed walk to the corner where I promised to meet Kelly. 

Once I got there, I panicked a bit. First of all, it was much, MUCH more crowded than I expected. I was like, "Oh yeah, Kelly, I'll just meet you at the corner of Cermak and Wentworth." What I didn't know is that everybody and their mother was also meeting someone at the same intersection. Also, I was supposed to jump in the race at this point to do a couple of these really tough miles with her, and I saw barricades everywhere keeping spectators from entering the course. 

Oh AND, for some reason, I thought I'd told Kelly that the corner of Cermak and Wentworth was at the 20.5 mile mark, not where it actually was, at 21.5. So I convinced myself she wouldn't even be looking for me - that she would've thought she missed me a mile back. Turns out my directions to her had been fine, I just psyched myself out once I got there. 

Anyway, I really wanted to find her. We missed her at mile 8.5, my parents said that although they'd seen her at mile 13, she hadn't seen them, and I'd really been looking forward to running part of the race with her.

So, I stepped up to the plate and acted very much out of my mostly Sherman character. I kind of pushed my way up to the front of the spectator line just south of where the barricades ended, about a block after where I told Kelly I'd meet her. I stood my ground, even though the ladies with the cowbells behind me (who had been there longer and were probably super annoyed with me) pushed against me to try to get a better view. And I held the red Powerpack sign up, hoping Kelly would see it. Kevin was right with me the whole time, keeping his eyes out as well.

I waited and waited and waited. I was pretty convinced we'd missed her - there were just so many runners to sift through and I wasn't convinced we'd even made it to the meeting place in time. But finally, I saw a french braid and a flash of pink and I threw the sign at Kevin and took off after her yelling her name. We did it!

I ran with Kelly for 3.5 miles. We weaved through a pretty crowded course, passed by a couple of water stops, chatted a little, but mostly ran quietly. You don't have much energy to talk after running for over four hours. I stayed with her until the 25 mile marker. I figured I should stop there, because the last mile is truly just for marathoners, I think. They deserve to take that victory lap on their own. 

After meeting up with Kevin (who had decided to stop by a Chinese restaurant for some egg foo young while I ran and who was a huge trooper, following me all around Chicago with a boot on his foot), we killed some time in a Burger King while we waited for Amy to come by. About half an hour before we expected her we headed out to the race course and cheered on the exhausted, limping runners as they made their way to the finishing chute. Once again, we found Amy, about ten minutes earlier than expected. I cheered like a maniac, jumped in and ran with her for a few minutes, and then got out of breath and sent her on her way. Sometime during all of this I got a text message telling me that Kelly had finished in under five hours and had met up with Mom and Dad. 

We walked toward the finish line ourselves and waited for Amy to cross it, collect all the free food they throw at you when you're done, grab her medal and make her way to us. We had to send out a search party, but we found her eventually (sitting under a bridge...you'll have to ask her to tell that story). She ran her race in 5:50. 

The rest of the day involved walks that were way too long for our poor racers' tired legs and lots of pizza and beer and Bears football and even a little champagne.

Give our girls a big hug the next time you see them for a job very well done!