My Side of the Story

You know that look I give Spencer? You know--THE look. It says, "Leave me alone. I've reached the end."

I don't think Spencer has EVER given me The Look. Until Saturday.

I was standing about a tenth of a mile from the finish line and praying and praying that Spence was going to reach his goal. The time kept ticking. He didn't come. And then suddenly, there he was. I turned the camera on so I could take his picture running. I yelled, "Go, Spencer!" And THAT'S when I got The Look.

And I knew that he was hurting and in serious danger of missing his goal. So I took off on a run, yelling, "I'm so proud of you! You're gonna do it!" He asked me where the finish line was, and I said, "It's right there. See? We were here last night." And I said, "Babe, you're really close. We're gonna have to put on the push. Can you give me anything else?"

And I got The Look again.

So I shut up. And he said, "Keep talking."

So over and over again I said, "I'm so proud of you. You're so close. You're gonna do it. Keep going!"

When we crossed the finish line, gun time said 3:21:something. I was praying that he had crossed the start over a minute after the gun time. The people at the finish line quickly escorted me to the non-runners' area, and I headed straight for the results tent. The woman there told me that she could only give times to the runners. So I said, "OK, I'll just wait for him here." As other people were getting their results I was listening in, trying to figure out how close to his time they were. Finally the same woman asked for his bib number. After several tries (and about 10 minutes) we got his final result: 3:20:21. I called him and said, "Did you have to be UNDER 3:20?" He said, "No, I have a 59 second window."

I screamed, "Woot! 3:20:21! You did it!" And all I could do was cry.

I'm so, so proud of him. And I'm so, so glad I could help.

Later he said thank you for all the support and he wishes it would be my turn to do something. I said, "We're going to Boston in 2011, right?" He said something like heck, yes. :) I said, "So we're going to New York with my singing group next year, right?" He said, "Yes, we are."