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."

Boston, Mass., Here We Come!

I QUALIFIED TO RUN THE BOSTON MARATHON.

This picture was taken about 10-15 minutes after I crossed the finish line, maybe a little longer I was dazed, totally out of blood sugar.

I truly do not know if I would have made it without Aundrea running the last tenth of a mile with me, I so wanted to stop, I could see the finish line but it did not inspire me at all. All I wanted to do was to stop running, but I knew I was within seconds of qualifying for Boston, with Aundrea by my side telling me how great I was doing I kept running and qualified for Boston with 39 Seconds to spare. Needless to say she did not get a photo of me in the last seconds of the race, instead of taking a snap shot of me, she recognized I was not doing well and came right to my side and ran to the end with me. She was promptly escorted off before she could cross the finish line. Aundrea is my hero.

I will forward more official photos as the become available.

The race went really well for me, I did not struggle until the last three miles. My legs just did not want to run at that pace any more. I could feel a blister develop by mile 10 but just accepted the fact there was nothing I could do about it. The blister popped at mile 24 and other than that I had no problems.

My time: 3:20:21

To Qualify for Boston I needed to cross the finish line by 3:20:59

YEA!!!!

Spencer P. Hill