Support Crew

I am one of the lucky ones. The verrryyyy lucky ones.
There is barely a race that I've run without support. Now I'm not talking about the organized volunteers handing out water and making sure I don't make a wrong turn (although that is pretty awesome, too). I'm talking about friends waking up at 4am and indulging my "let's get to the race start an hour and a half before the gun goes off at 6am" pre-race anxiety. I'm talking about friends who stand out in the cold for that hour and a half with me as I bounce around to the washroom, to warm-up, to chat nervously with people I recognize, back to the washroom, etc. And then they stand for another 2+ hours as they wait patiently for me to finish the race. What they do in that time, I don't know. All I know is that when I run those long km's on the back half of a half marathon, the thought of those special people watching for me in the crowd keep me going. And when I come around the corner to the finish line, there they are; cheering and screaming and encouraging me to that finish.

So when a few of my fellow running group friends decided to run the small (capped at 1000) but beautiful (running through Fish Creek Park) Harvest Half Marathon, what else was I to do on a Saturday morning but go and support them?
One of my fellow pace group gals and good friends picked me up with pre-race jitters at 6.15am for a 7.45am race. I know what that feels like! What I didn't expect was the pre-support crew jitters that kept me up at crazy hours the night before. Thoughts of, "What if I sleep in and forget? Did I bring enough warm clothes if it's cold? Should I pack more snacks?" Danced through my head. I guess I had such high standards from my own support crew experiences that I wanted to live up to those.

We wandered around, met up with the others, the gun went off....and....now what? The first person we were expecting to see was planning to cross the finish line at 1h40. So what are two Canadian supporters to do for the next 90minutes while we waited? Go to Tim Horton's of course!
With two of us, the time just flew by and before we knew it we were back at the race start watching people zip in to the finish. It was fun to watch the display of emotions. Some people laughed, some cried, some looked stunned (particularly the poor guy who face-planted 50m from the finish line), and a lot had that grimace of intense focus.

The support crew legacy lives on

There weren't many supporters to this small race, but they were encouraging. And nobody had as cool signs as we did! Another gal was going to come in support but work had called her out of town, so she helped me make up the race signs that we could hold up and cheer people on with. I don't know if anyone actually read the signs or if they were too focussed on the finish. But I do know that watching my friends cross the finish line and being able to cheer their names and congratulate them...that was pretty amazing. That is what the running community is about. It may be a solo sport, but everyone has their own personal cheerleaders in the form of other runners. And whatever the time you ran in, whatever your feelings on the race, we are there to support you, because you matter.

My incredible Australian friends taught me that.

 Only the truth!