Professional Spectator

The Georgia Marathon took place again this year, but after running two marathons this season already, I decided not to do it.

[last year]

After running the half twice and the full twice, this is the first year I was a just a spectator of the race. Honestly, it was just as fun and almost as exhausting watching the event that runs throughout Atlanta and nearby Decatur.

Like the runners, I woke up bright and early and headed, by foot, about 2.5 miles away from home to first watch the half marathoners.

I love running early on a weekend morning in the ATL. The streets are empty, and I can even run on the road [against traffic, of course].

I made it to the 10 mile mark with just a few minutes to spare, and then the runners started coming.

And up came the sun!

I saw a lot of friends running, but it was so crowded that I know I missed a bunch of them.

After watching the half marathoners for a while, I ran about 1.5 miles to the 23rd mile of the full marathon. After about 15-20 minutes, the lead runner passed by!

I ended up standing with a random girl [also named Kristy...weird]. It was hilarious, because the first two guys looked like marathon runners. Then the third-place guy came along. As he was making his way up the hill to us, he started walking! As he got closer, we could see that this guy did not look like your average lead-pack runner. He was just an average dude, not in particularly good shape, who looked like he woke up, decided to run the marathon, kicked it for a while, and happened to be in 3rd place! Looking at his finish time, it was obvious that he pretty much walked the last 3 miles, but still ended up in the top 10 since the field was so spread out. Kristy and I were cracking up at this guy though. And what a bad-ass!

After that fun, I headed to the mile 22 in Piedmont Park.

Since there are always less marathoners in a big race like this, I was able to spot a lot of friends!

In between watching out for folks, I did laps around a half-mile “track” in the park.

I ended up running about 9 miles total that morning and had a blast as a spectator! Cheering for people in races is one of my favorite things ever! There’s just so much energy and watching friends achieve their goals is awesome!

Do you ever just go to races to cheer and not run?