gnat runs (with) the chicago marathon

there i go up michigan avenue! check out my form!

did you find me?

the name marathon comes from the legend of a greek messenger named pheidippides, who was sent from the battle at marathon to athens to announce that the persians had been defeated. he ran the whole way without stopping, burst into the assembly, yelled "we have won," and promptly collapsed and died.

naturally, this is the type of story that inspires people to emulate pheidippides and run marathons of their own. three of those inspired crazies are cara and her friends whitney and lisa, who flew out from LA to run the chicago marathon this morning.

i participated in the capacity of spectator/cheering section member, and spent the day with cara's family rushing all over the city trying to catch brief glimpses of our runners.

we started our morning at aleck's apartment,

where we put together some motivational signs for our runners.

then headed down his street, where we caught the leading pack of runners just after the nine mile mark.

45,000 people ran the marathon today. where did they find 45,000 people crazy enough to do this?

i mean, seriously.

after looking for our runners at mile 9, we rushed over to the other side of town to catch them at mile 21, then again just before the end at mile 25. i got a picture of cara in the home stretch - doesn't she look amazing?

here they are after making it to the post race party, at mile 27 (which frankly i think is a little mean to people who have just finished a 26.2 mile race).

i'm so proud! good job guys!