Los Angeles Marathon 2009

Our son, Eric wanted to run in the LA Marathon. I usually avoid crowds but I agreed to go with him and drive him home. It would have been a long day for Michael so Mimi stayed home with their son.
I was glad I went, it was quite an experience. The "elite athletes" were not what interested me, it was everything and everyone else.

Among all of those people, I wasn't sure I could spot Eric waiting in the crowd for the race to start. Finally I saw him and got his attention. He gave me a big smile and then they were off! Now I only had to wait five hours for him to come back after running over 26 miles around Los Angeles.

Once the runners were off I wandered around to see what I could see. The first thing to catch my eye were all the trash trucks. Trash?

It seems the runners have bottles of water and sports drinks which they drop when they take off. And the gleaners are there to collect them.

They also drop jackets and warm-up pants and there are gleaners to pick those up as well. Not much left for the trash trucks, at least not here. They will pick up the cups left at the aide stations.

The first to cross the finish line were the wheel chair racers. These wheel chairs were like nothing I had seen before.

These contestants were great athletes. I couldn't help but wonder how many of them had lost the use of their legs fighting for their country. The race was on Memorial Day.

I did snap a picture of the winners

They were moving fast.

After the winners came by, I went to get a view of the finish line, I knew I would have nearly three hours to wait. Spectators could only get a birds eye view. There was fruit, water, sports drinks and space blankets for the runners when they finished. There was medical assistance for any runner who might need it.

After checking out the festivities beyond the finish line, I returned to my spot at the 26 mile point. The wheel chair racers were still coming in, 2 1/2 hours after the winner in their class. Some were struggling with out the high tech chairs the leaders had,

but they persisted. My heart went out to them and to all the runners who kept going, some with obviously sore feet and cramping legs, all exhausted.

I was afraid I would miss Eric, I often got distracted by what was going on around me, but then, there he was.

He rested a while at the finish line and then we met up at the reunion area. He was ready for a smoothie!
I found this to be a very moving experience.

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