A big THANK YOU to friends

We are now back in Carrboro -- a little tired, a little achy, but generally very happy. Despite just recovering from mono (which meant limited training), Marc managed a 2:20:57 in the Boston Marathon on Monday, placing himself 15th overall, and as the 3rd American. What an achievement! Marc has a recap of his race at the Carrboro Athletics Club Website.

We have many people to thank during our trip to Boston. Meg and Aaron graciously let us crash at their place for 4 nights, fed us well and were just such wonderful supporters (they had also traveled to NYC to catch Marc race in the trials last Nov). Kit drove Marc & Jeff to near the start which allowed them to avoid having to get up 2 hours earlier and deal with the un-nerving chaos of getting to Hopkinton from Boston. He and I then drove to around the 10-mile point in Natick as well as to Brookline around the 24th mile to catch Marc, Harsha & Jeff (plus the numerous other runners Kit knows) -- all this despite his laryngitis!

Other great support along the way included a Swarthmore friend of Marc's, Rory, who biked 4 miles along side and yelled for Marc the whole way; and a church friend who had told his daughter about Marc running, so even though we had never met, she rallied together a group of friends who cheered very loudly for Marc around mile 19, leaving Marc completely confused as to who that random group was, but also energized to keep running.

It is really friends like these that allow Marc to perform at the level he does! Thanks guys!

We will have more photos from the Marathon posted shortly, but I could not resist posting this one of Marc just after mile 10! As you can see, he was having fun!

~ Shuwen