AM - Got up early to wish Jake good luck at the marathon. Then a couple friends and I headed to the 6.5 mile mark to watch. Man, it was hot (and only 9:30am)! The sun was beating down hard. Jake was in high spirits at this point, really working the crowd. I gave him a water bottle and a cold sponge. Then we headed to the 15.5 mile mark. I decided to run a couple miles further on the course so he could have another spot for aid. So I saw him again at mile 17.5. He told me "This is getting really TOUGH". The heat was really starting to get to him. That was all I got to see of Jake. I wished him best and thankfully Emily Bates was at Heartbreak Hill to help him out as well! I ran back to the 15.5 mile mark, somehow missing a lot of the bloggers. I did see Kam and ran with him for a few minutes. I was getting really nervous about not seeing Rachelle (b/c I was planning on running with her), but she came along looking great. Soaked from head to toe from pouring so much water on herself! We ran together from 15.5 - 24.5 miles. Unfortunately, my water bottle fell apart so I wasn't able to help her with that as much as I had hoped. I tried to get Gatorade and water at the (very busy) aid stations every once in a while though. We were passing people left and right. I would say we passed probably 1000 people in 9 miles - it was awesome. But I gotta say, those 9 miles were not easy. I felt like I was overheating after about 4 miles in the conditions so I can't even imagine what it was like for everyone racing for a full 26.2 miles. I cannot stress how much the heat factored into this race. That said, I am very proud of everyone that stuck it out and ran hard today - they all deserve a half gallon of ice cream tonight (after about 10 bottles of Gatorade!). Anyway, I ended up somewhere in the 15 miles today, but I feel like I ran at least 20! My friend Greg got some awesome pics of Jake so make sure you check them out on his blog (when he gets them up).
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