The support group of a runner at the Frankfurt Half Marathon a few years ago.
Tag: road race
Spectators’ High
No matter how non-competitive we purport to be, a running group attracts a fair amount of crazies who take running seriously and they end up running in official street races.
As a group we want to support even these deviant individuals. However, being the audience in a street race is almost as boring as being the audience in a bicycle race (basically the same, only faster). You stand at the curb, you wait a long time until the front runners run past, you clap and cheer, and then you wait an inordinate amount of time until your friends run, walk or limp past. You clap and cheer and possibly jeer. And the excitement is over in less than two minutes. Then you either go home or you move towards the finish where you find your friends, console them and take them home. As I said: boring.
We decided that was just not us. We formed a PuB team (that’s “Pompom & Beer” although we are not adverse to any associations with literal pubs), dressed up, armed ourselves with lots of noise makers and nutritional supplements (i.e. beer) and devised a cunning plan so that we could see our friends at least three times on the road of the Frankfurt Halfmarathon by cleverly navigating between various locations.
And then we decided not to stand around being bored and freezing while waiting for our friends – we started to cheer everybody. The runners carried their first names on their numbers and how we cheered for Rebecca and Beate and Gert and Ingo and all those other runners we didn’t know! And they loved it! Particularly the slower runners for whom it was all about participating smiled back, they clapped for us, some even did little capers. After the race we were approached by a couple of runners who thanked us and told us that our support had nudged them on.
And we enjoyed ourselves so much that we have since cheered at the Frankfurt Marathon and the Frankfurt Iron Man. The latter was particularly fun because many competitors displayed their nationality and we became truly international. To this day I can cheer in Hebrew!
The photos are all from our first outing at the Frankfurt Halfmarathon in 2017.
The front runners are approaching. 
They were so fast the picture is blurred. 
And we never even got their names 
We got a smile for “only 20 k to go”! 
Those were the more serious runners. 
Concentrated on their time rather than the experience. 
The slower ones took notice. The lion even lost traction! 
Shaking pompoms for the last stretch. 
And a beer to carry over the finishing line.
The Ragtag Daily Prompt: Marathon
Racing lucky
Fortune (or luck) is with the brave. Make your own connection with that beaming, strong, brave mother taking part in the Frankfurt Half-marathon event and the motto of a traditional student’s fraternity.
Linked to One Word Sunday: luck. More lucky pictures, can be found here.
Run, Lion, run!
Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
– Confucius
He may look like the Cowardly Lion but he put his whole heart in the half-marathon and in his running gear.
If you want to see what other bloggers made of the Confucius quote, click here.
Go, go! Only twenty more to go!
On Sunday, there is the next Frankfurt half marathon. These are photos from last year’s race.
The roads are blocked off for the runners. Cars and police men on motorbikes clear the road just ahead of the runners.
The front runners are so fast, they are difficult to catch on camera.
Some seem to fly over the surface.
The first few hundred runners take little notice of anything around them, they just concentrate on the road.
The slower runners seem to have a lot more fun, smiling and sometimes even joking amongst themselves.
Some even acknowledge the cheering spectators and groupies on the side of the road.
And just before the end, well deserved nourishment and reward (aka: beer) is handed out to a selected few to help them over the finishing line.
For Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge. If you want to see roads and paths and alleys from other parts of the world, click here.
pictures imperfect blog 