Marathon: The Fan's Perspective

Hello marathon fans. Now that you've heard Fred's side of things, I thought you might enjoy a glimpse into my world on race day. First, a little background:

Fred ran his first race in Minneapolis 3 years ago. With the help of my hometown knowledge of side streets, my dad's pickup truck, and a sharpie marker, I decorated a 6 foot tall GIANT FINGER POINTING THE WAY ("Go Fred!"), stuck a stick into it, and cheered him on from an overpass. Somewhere I have a picture of this. What, you ask, is a GIANT FINGER POINTING THE WAY? When Fred and I lived in the Twin Cities we had a loft apartment with 15 foot high ceilings. We had this old stage prop, given to us by friends - a hand, with the index finger extended. For 5 years it hung from our ceiling. When we moved, I couldn't bear to let it go. So we stored it (thanks mom) in my parents' attic for the next 5 years until its comeback, cheering Fred on to his 3:04 debut marathon finish.

Last fall Fred ran the famous NYC marathon for the first time. Boy was I excited for this one. On race day I showed up to cheer Fred and his buddy Knox on. I came prepared with my crew of friends, friends' kids, musical instruments, posters, coffees, cell phones, handbags, sunglasses....typical NYC. Thanks to Knox's son, I was ready to go. "I'm so very proud of you, Daddy," Raul had started saying to his dad recently.... for any reason whatsoever. Like when Knox found a good parking spot, or made spaghetti. Fred set a new personal record of 2:48.


Ok, so I know now you're wondering: "But what about Boston?" While I was away dancing in 2006 and in Germany in 2007, Fred ran two of his most impressive races without me, and both times set new personal records: Boston 2006, 2:54, Boston 2007, 2:46.

Which brings us to Frankfurt 2007. We headed down on the 6am train with about 35 runners and running fans from Kassel. If you're having a hard time picturing this, imagine a train car, and then imagine it full of people in green and white ripstop nylon jackets speaking German. It was great. The older ladies passed out candies, the manager of the team gave me a run-down of his personal marathon history, about half of which I could decipher, and I got into a very detailed discussion about horses with a 9 year old who schooled me in German.

It was my first look behind the scense at the runners getting ready. I'm not going to go into detail about this. I'll just say that modesty has a completely different meaning. And I thought dancers were shameless.



I got to see some good views of the city.




And some things unique to a German marathon:

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The balloon arch over the course deflating, followed by lots of spectator participation to keep the balloon from hitting the runners


From the Department of Strange Choices: The last band before the finish playing Eric Clapton's song that goes "Would you know my name, if I saw you in heaven?'


And of course, Fred running. I don't have any pictures of that because I was too busy cheering. I got to the Opera Platz early to get a good view of Fred passing at 36K. When I saw Fred coming, I started screaming his name. Not surprisingly, he ran right toward me. Surprisingly, he stopped. "I'm done," he said. What, are you injured? I asked. My calves, he said....just 7 K more, he said.... Are you sure, I asked? I think I can make it, he said. You can make it, I answered. He handed me his sunglasses, and ran away. The crowd started applauding us. Wow, I thought, that was corny.