Green Bay Marathon ---spectator report

When I was done racing at 7:45 a.m., I had a few beers to celebrate and then I put my racing bib away and put my spectator hat on. I was cheering on my friend Crystal who was doing the half, and Kim and Nigel who were doing the marathon. We had our map and an idea of where we would catch the racers on the course. Before we set off we got to see the first 5 finish the half, they finished in 01:05:00! WOWZA! Talk about exciting to see them zoom in, we had our signs out and cheered them on. We set out to see our friends with 3 kids in toe. Now 10,000 racers means tons of road closures, spectators, traffic. We spent the majority of the time either lost, or sitting in traffic. We completely missed Crystal on the course and at the finish. I FELT HORRIBLE. We should have just stayed at Lambeau, but we really didn't anticipate being trapped or lost. We some how found our way to mile 20 and stood on the bike path, I was getting text updates on Kim so I knew she was close to us. We cheered on the racers and waved our signs. 90% of the racers nodded or thanked us for the encouragement. We saw Kim would looked great as if she was just out for a leisurely run, it was great to see her and to hopefully give her a bit of motivation to finish strong. We weren't getting text updates on Nigel so we were unsure of where he was, we decided to head back to Lambeau to hang out with Crystal and wait for Kim to finish. We had a hard time getting back due to traffic or road closures. We ended up walking about 5 blocks, at this point our kids were exhausted (having been up since 5:00 am) we found Crystal and I greeted her with a hug and congrats--we were so proud of her! We saw Kim finish and I snapped some pictures for her. I loved cheering and watching the runners, it gave me so much motivation to kick my running up a notch. Only once did someone respond rudely to my cheering, it was at mile 25 and I got an "enough already" ....I suppose since he was at mile 25 I will let it slide HA! Being there was an amazing experience. I encourage anyone who has the chance to be a spectator at a marathon to do it!!

CONGRATS to Crystal, Kim, and Nigel---you are my inspiration!