One of the things I loved about racing was the number of people standing on the sides cheering. I do much better when I have an audience, and it certainly helped push me through the tough parts of the race today.

A lot of the spectators had funny signs; I wish I had gotten pictures of all of them, but I remembered a few of my favorite signs:

“Run like it’s the Hunger Games!”
“Better catch that refrigerator”
“I bet it seemed like a good idea 3 months ago”
Someone in a wheelchair around mile 10 had attached a sign to their chair that read, “$200 for a ride to the finish”
Another person had two signs, the first one read “Go faster” and the second, “That’s what she said”

I really need to start paying people to follow me around on my training runs with funny signs to cheer me on, it really helps…