Newport Marathon, done the easy way.

I awoke after what felt like a sleepless night.  We didn't arrive into Newport until near midnight and I had trouble falling asleep right away.  It was 5:30 on marathon morning.  Although this was intended to be my backup marathon, I was thankful it wasn't.  I was completely wrecked from driving and the short sleep and happy to be enjoying the race from the sidelines and spectator bus.  I also really enjoyed my parfait from The Coffee House along the marathon course.

Matt and I don't make decisions easily and the whole putting-words-into-sentences thing when we're tired so we got a late start and missed seeing Danny pass at mile 5, along the Newport waterfront.  Since we arrived in the dark, we didn't realize how beautiful this town and race course are until we hopped the spectator bus.

This is about the 4:30-5:00 finish crowd.

As we skirted the northern shores of Yaquina Bay, runners occupied one lane of the roadway, the bus on the other.  It was fun to watch the runners from this close.  Logistically, this was the best spectator friendly marathon I think I've ever seen.

Oysters at mile 19. One receives a special prize for breaking the course oyster record.  Currently it sits at 85.

We waited patiently, scanning the running field for our runner's orange t-shirt.  The bus was slower than expected because we couldn't get around a really slow cyclist that took up the entire lane and didn't let the bus pass.  By this time, we expected to see Danny at mile 23.  When we saw him walking shortly after mile 20, we knew something had happened and he wasn't having a good day.

We got off the bus and parked ourselves at the 24 mile marker.  I never know what is the best thing to say this far into a marathon so I decided on either "woohoo!! 24 miles!!" or "Great job!".  Unless the runner was ACTUALLY looking good, I didn't say it.  If I could at least get them to smile, I considered my job done well.

Matt and I ran along with Danny for a little bit and then we dropped off behind him to walk until the next shuttle came along.  I know I'd rather be in my own head this late in a race, so we just let him know we were supporting him and left him to do his thing.

We weren't paying attention when the one shuttle appeared and missed it.  We walked to the finish, cheering runners on as they went by.

Then just twelve hours after our arrival, the three of us took off back to Eugene....after a Dairy Queen stop, obviously.