Today we went to see my college roommate "Rahzi" run the Marine Corps Marathon. It was truly an amazing experience and we were only there watching. She runs with Team in Training to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Tyler was spending the night at his friends house so we OVERSLEPT and missed pretty much the whole run. We had to rush to make it to the finish. When we got there I was completely overwhelmed by how many people were there. I was positive that we would never see her or find her family and we would just be wandering around for hours. Luckily they had this set up to get online and track the runners (Ciara figured out it gave an estimated finish time - when I sent her back after thirty or forty minutes to make sure) so we found that we hadn't missed her finish. We found a spot that had a great view and we watched and waited. It was truly AMAZING listening to all of the stories and watching all of the people cross the line. Some of them were holding hands, some were being supported on either side to make it across, some of them had blisters so bad they had taken off their shoes, we saw one who had carried the american flag all TWENTY SIX (and point two) miles, another one was being pushed across the finish in a wheel chair. I kept being scared that we had missed her but we finally did get to see her come up the hill (pretty mean to put a hill in the final stretch of a marathon if you ask me) and round the corner for the finish.
After the finish when we were walking to try to find her both Ciara and I were crying. We couldn't really explain why but it was just such a moving experience, especially to know someone who actually completed it.
With some complete dumb luck we were able to find Rahz and her family and get some pics!!!
At mile 25 (correct me if I'm wrong Rahz) her husband Ryan even joined her and ran with her almost up to the finish.
Now that we've been to one we know what to expect so for the Marathon in Pittsburgh we're going to be ready and have signs and be able to track her and actually get to see more than just the finish. (We'll go to sleep extra early)
So CONGRATULATIONS Rahzi you ROCK!!!!!
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