The Santiago Marathon was a couple of weeks ago, and a leg of the course for both the marathon and half-marathon was a block away.
Sudoku, Doodle, Rosebud and I walked around the block just in time to see the tail end of the lead runners skirting by. We stood on a street corner at about the 13km mark of the 42km race with a few other spectators to cheer on runners as they passed by.
I’m always struck by the diversity of people who attempt this 26 mile run: young, middle-aged, over-the-hill — they are all present. Rail thin, overweight, long and short-legged…it’s a mixed, motley crew. They all are suffering together. I prefer to just admire them from the sidelines. 🙂
Doodle jumped in and ran a short piece while things were still thinned out.
After a while our hands got tired of clapping, and the kids stuck out their hands from the sidewalk to offer a high-five. Some participants would make a bee line for our side of the street so they could get that encouraging “atta-boy”. Except we didn’t say that. We said things like, “Animo!” “Se puede!” “Vamos!” Here are the three kids lined up, ready to high-five.
We kept looking for my friend Andrea who was running the half-marathon but never saw her. She later told me that she saw us “animando” (encouraing/cheering), but she was on the other side of the road, and the crowd was pretty thick at that point.
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