Mike's Marathon Blog

If you thought the other post was a tearjerker, this one should really get ya. I thought I would be more emotional during the race than I was. My stomach pains didn’t help matters and towards the end, I really just wanted it to be over. Even coming down Boylston, I really didn’t feel anything. My sights were on the finish line and that was it! But I did have a moment around mile 9. This is a true story and if you’ve been following my blog, you will not believe the ending. Enjoy.

It was so great to see pace girl, you have no idea! Seeing a familiar face on the course is rare and ‘running’ into her was exactly what I needed at that point in the race. My stomach was really bothering me and was starting to affect my mood. We talked for awhile, which helped shift my attention to something besides the alien trying to escape my stomach.

The crowds were getting deeper and deeper as we entered Natick. There must have been people 20 deep at some of the major intersections. And just like the other towns, spectators were screaming runners’ names from 50 feet away. Not only were they cheering for ‘Mike’ and ‘Children’s,’ they were cheering ‘go Emily’ as well. I had white tape across my back that read ‘4 EMILY’ and folks must have been reading it as I ran past them………or so I thought.

The first time I heard a ‘go Emily’ cheer, I immediately thought about the Mandell’s and why I was running this brutal race. If Brian hadn’t inspired me to run over a year ago, I probably would have been at a bar with my friends and not at mile 8. If Jack worked somewhere else or if Emily went to a different hospital, I wouldn’t be running for Children’s. The doctors and nurses at Children’s care for sick kids every single day. Raising some money and running 26 miles was the very least I could do to help. I was so proud to be wearing the Children’s singlet and even more honored to have ‘4 EMILY’ taped on my back. If that white tape brought a smile to Katie Mandell’s face when I ran past her, then my day was a success.

Between the screams of the spectators, the hundreds of cowbells and the loud thuds of runners’ feet, something caught my attention on the sidewalk. I heard someone yell ‘go Emily,’ which had been a steady cheer for the past few miles, but this one was different. This one was in front of me. I started watching people on the sidewalk and saw with my own eyes ‘go Emily’ coming out of different mouths. How could this be? How did they know I was running for Emily when they were standing in front of me? Maybe it wasn’t for me?

I started looking around for an ‘Emily.’ I turned to my left, nothing. I looked behind me the best I could, nothing. There were men in front of me, so it couldn’t have been them. Where was Emily?

It hit me like a ton of bricks. I remember exactly where we were. Honestly, out of the 26.2 miles, I could bring you to the exact spot where this happened. My mind starting going a mile a minute, my heart was pounding (even more than it had been) and my goosebumps had goosebumps.

I knew it before I even turned my head. A part of me didn’t want to look. I wanted it to be true and would have been a bit disappointed if I was wrong. I started thinking back to the Saturday runs in Wellesley and how this person got me through so many of them. I started thinking about all the people that have said to me, ‘that blog post was so funny’ and ‘I can’t believe you don’t know her name and you run with her every week.’ This some how turned into the front page story of my training. I still couldn’t believe that we found each other in a crowd of 23,126 runners.

I kept hearing the cheers, ‘go Emily’, ‘go Mike’, ‘go Emily’, ‘go Mike.’ We had been running side by side for a few miles. Actually, we had been running side by side for 4 months and I still didn’t know her name…….until now. I looked to the right and there was pace girl, less than six inches from me. And right there on her singlet, in large colorful bubble letters, was her name……EMILY.

Her name was Emily the whole time.