Mike and I waited for her at the 14 mile mark to give her some refreshment and encouragement. She was so far ahead of her anticipated time that we didn't even see her until she was almost right in front of us.
She still had 12.2 miles to go, so Mike and I walked down to the finish line at Qwest stadium. We got an awesome spot, right at the finish line. I stood and watched runners finish for an hour and it was a very emotional experience. I couldn't believe how strong they were. I totally expected to see runners collapsing all over the place, but most were smiling and cheering. One man sommersaulted over the line, and one did a cartwheel! I saw only one woman in really bad shape who needed help from the medical team to stand up after she crossed the line. Gretchen's expected finish time was about 4:10. She was hoping for 4:0something, and she finished in 3:57! And she was able to walk and talk afterwards! She's a rock star! I was so proud of her.
Here she is, coming down the stretch. The clock says 4:04 because that's the offical time. Each runner had a tracker on their shoe that recorded their actual time. A funny side-note, see the man in the green t-shirt holding a child's hand on the right of the picture? Somehow his kid got into the finish area and was running away from the finish line. The poor guy had to run against traffic to catch his kid, after just finishing 26.2 miles! Where's the mom? is what I say!
The finish line!
Yay! She did it!
Okay, so what I REALLY want to know.....is if she peed while running. Guess I have to ask her in person. Every good marathon runner....pees while they run!
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