I am a marathon SUPER FAN!!

I am SO PROUD of Eli and is marathon accomplishments. He ran the Twin Cities marathon for the first time this year. I have been wanting him to do this race for quite some time. He has done Grandma's Marathon four times, Chicago three times (yes I count last year even though it was too hot to finish), Milwaukee once, and the Des Moines once. I have watched every marathon that he has been in since we began dating. I find them fun to watch, but not always so spectator friendly. At Grandma's Marathon and the Milwaukee Marathon, there really isn't an opportunity to go and watch the race at different points. We have always been warned that if we go to the start line of Grandmas and pause to watch at different locations that we might not be able to make it back to the finish because of the traffic. So we just wait at the finish. The one time that Eli and Jason did the Milwaukee Marathon, we drove Eli's car to Milwaukee which was a manual transmission. At the time, neither Kara or I could drive a manual transmission so we had to just wait at the finish line. At the Chicago Marathon, it is possible to take the L train to different points but you never know how long the train will take you (or how packed the cars will be, pressing up against a smelly stranger is not fun) and since there are so many runners I have sometimes not been able to pick Eli out of the crowed. Last year at Chicago the heat was so extreme and the planners had not prepared for enough water so they closed the course before Eli had finished. He ran about 22 miles and not the full 26.2 so he registered for the Des Moines Marathon which was being held two weeks later. I was able to drive my own car to Des Moines, but since I am so unfamiliar with the city of Des Moines, I only saw Eli in I think four spots. I couldn't be sure that I would find where I was going. I was so excited to have Eli run a marathon in our hometown. I knew that I would be able to drive to several different locations and cheer him on. You can imagine my disappointment when we looked at the forecast and saw rain! Well I learned from our experience at the Banco Popular Half Marathon in Chicago. No way was I going to get soaked again. I prepared. I brought not only my umbrella but a FULL RAIN SUIT. I dropped off Eli and his coworker Amie off at the start line and went to scope out a spot at the 1 mile mark. I waited in the car with my book on tape for about an hour before taking my place. I just put on the rain jacket because it wasn't raining real hard at the time. The spot where I was, was right in front of the Basilica in Minneapolis. It was so neat when the first runners came by the bell tower started tolling and it kept ringing while the runners came by. I waved to Eli and then took off for my car. My goal was to find a spot near Lake Calhoun. I drove down to the Caribou Coffee near lake street and was thinking of getting a coffee and parking in the Lake Calhoun Executive Center, but it looked like that lot was full, so I just left the car at Caribou and walked over to Lake Calhoun parkway. By this time it had started to pour pretty good so I grabbed my umbrella along with the rain coat. Luckily I didn't have to wait more than a couple of minutes before there came my Eli looking strong but wet. By the time I got back to the car I was pretty soaked and my jeans had gotten pretty wet. I wished I would have had the rain pants on too, so when I got back to the car I put them on over my jeans. I then went to mile 8, by the time I got there it was really raining. I was glad to have the rain pants. Eli's dad called to tell me that he wasn't going to make it down to watch the race, just as Eli was running by so I waived at him with one hand and the phone in the other! Off to mile 12 at Lake Nokomis. This is the point that I had the most trouble getting to. I'm not that familiar with South Minneapolis, I first needed to find a place to get across 35W with the crosstown closed for the weekend it was a little trial and error. There was lots of traffic from the race and people going to church plus the rain was slowing people down. I just drove down a bunch of side streets until I finally figured out where I was. I got to see Eli and I even saw one of my brother's good friends who was running the race. After mile 12 I was off to the Mississippi River by Minnehaha Park and mile 16. By this time the rain had pretty much let up and this guy that was next to me kept telling people that they needed to get some sunscreen before they got to St. Paul. I thought it was a little funny. Eli began to look a little tired to me at this point but he was still going strong! I then took off for mile 21 on the other side of the river. Even though it had stopped raining I didn't want to take my rain gear off just in case! Eli went by telling me he was going to walk up the hills. Mile 21 was pretty hilly, I had a fun walk back up to my car, man that was a challenge just going the four blocks uphill, I couldn't imagine going up and down for 26.2 miles. Next it was off to the finish line. I finally decided that it would be ok to take off the rain pants and dry out my wet jeans. Wearing rubber pants over wet jeans is not so comfortable! I then found a spot to wait for Eli near the 25 mile marker. Eli came rounding around the corner and I thought I can run with him to near the finish line, after all it is all down hill right? Ha! I made it about half of a block and then just told him to finish and I would catch up with him later! Despite the rain, I was so excited to see Eli at 7 different spots in the race course. It was a busy day for me and it was great fun cheering him on. Marathons are also good people watching sports. some people run the marathons in funny costumes, and a lot of the people running the race ran in garbage bags because of the rain. Eli reported that the course was too hilly and that he might not do it again, but I secretly hope that he does! Yeah Twin Cities!!