Spectating is a Sport of its Own

The 31st Annual Lincoln Marathon and Half Marathon took place yesterday morning at 7 am. I had decided a couple of months ago that I wasn't going to be doing the half marathon for the first time in five years but I still wanted to show up and cheer on the runners I knew and the runners I didn't know.

I needed to get up at 5:45, not pleasing on a Sunday, but it was a little later than if I had to prep myself for the race itself. I got up, had a bowl of cereal, threw on my clothes, and got my bike out the door. As soon as I stepped out on the front porch, I could hear the loud speaker from the start of the race on campus, which was enough to pump me up and to get me off the porch and on the bike and not regret getting up so early.

The weather was absolutely perfect-upper 30s or lower 40s I'd guess, sunshine, no clouds, and hardly any wind. This was another record year for marathon and half marathon entrants; they had bumped up the entrant number to 6000, and last I had heard, they had less than 100 spots left days before the race. That's a lot of people to comb through at the start to find anyone you knew, but I found Tish and Joeth fairly quickly. After wishing them good luck, I wandered around and took a few photos and videos of the starting line. The race starts outside of our campus recreation center and the runners line up on the Vine St. loop that stretches around towards the football stadium and back towards Morrill Hall. It was hard to get a photo of the entire mass of people, but I took one with a view from the back of the starting line as well as the front.

If I watch one of these marathons again, I will do a better job of jockeying for a good spot to take photos and videos. I took a 15 second video of the start of the race. You have to look around this guy in the black to see the runners, I didn't realize he stuck out so much when I was taking it. After calling the runners to their mark, about 10 seconds went by, then finally the canon was fired. I completely forgot about the canon, thus you will note how the video shakes at that moment.

Recorded inspirational music such as the Chariots of Fire song played as the runners started their race. (I continue to be annoyed that a couple of years ago, they stopped asking Nebraska's National Guard band to show up and play some nice marches, which was my favorite part of the race. I guess not everyone shared my viewpoint on that.) There appeared to be an endless number of runners-the last ones crossed the starting line after 10 minutes had already gone by.


Luckily, the Lincoln Marathon uses timing chips that runners tie into their shoe laces. Their individual time doesn't start until that chip is activated at the starting line. So it's no big deal to be starting 10 minutes late.

After seeing the last runners begin, I headed out on my bike to 20th and Calvert, which is roughly around the 9 mile mark in the race. I forgot until I got out there that this is the end of one of the few hills of a relatively flat course, so the runners sometimes look pretty rough at this point. The spectators know this and seem to be even more supportive. Here's a clip of a stream of runners coming up 20th St.



I watched for awhile, then I headed back towards campus so I could see Tish and Joeth at the halfway point. I guess I must be a really slow bike rider because somehow I missed them only 4 miles farther into the course. This made me realize that these spectators who I've seen in the past go from one location to another and then another on the route to see their family and friends run by have it down to a science. It's very easy to miss someone unless you have an almost exact idea what time they'll hit each mile marker. I took a good video nonetheless at 10th and Q St. This is a pivotal spot in the race-those who have signed up for the full marathon continue down 10th Street, or if they need/want to, they can make the turn and finish the race as a half marathoner instead. (People who sign up for the half marathon can't make the choice the other way around.) For me I always knew I was turning that corner and was always ecstatic to be so close to the finish. But for some, they have a big decision to make there. It's the point of no return.



Unfortunately, I didn't see Tish or Joeth cross the finish line, but Tish and I were able to backtrack and find a pretty pooped Joeth on the course back by the capitol with a half mile or so to go. After breezing through various other races in the last couple of years, I think Joeth has finally found a challenging distance for herself.

I headed back home before noon and felt much better than I normally do on marathon day. It didn't stop me from having a tasty DiLeon's burrito for lunch, which would be my normal post-run reward. I had put in my 13 miles, it was on my bike instead of on my shoes.