Spectating at Oakland Running Festival's Marathon & Half Marathon

Today was Oakland Running Festival's race.  Last year this was my first half marathon.  In addition, I managed to convince 21 of my students to run the half marathon as well!  We were so grateful to be part of Running for a Better Oakland which helped train the runners on Saturday mornings.  There were quite a few of our former students who were running the half marathon again so Mike and I wanted to be there to cheer them on (they didn't know we were coming so surprising them was fun).  In addition our good friend Moir was running the full marathon (his first!) so we wanted to be sure to cheer him on.  A coworker of ours was also running her first marathon so we were hoping to see her as well.

We made it a fun outing for the boys by taking BART.  They love riding on BART.
 
 
 
 
 

We took BART to West Oakland because it was around the halfway point for the half marathon runners and close to mile 20 for the marathoners.  Within a few minutes of arriving we saw Junior run by (in the yellow shirt). 

 Then came Jonathan (also in yellow - all of the students wore yellow RBO shirts).

I was happy to see Jefferson coming by as well.  Last year Mike ran the half marathon with him.

After Jefferson we saw Alejandra running with a smile on her face!
 
 Jasmine came running by as well looking really strong!

Then I looked around the corner and saw David and Vanessa.  They looked like they were struggling and walking a bit.  I definitely know that feeling.  I think I scared them when I jumped out in front of them and told them to start running again!  I ran a bit with them and was so proud of them for digging deep and continuing on. 
 
 I'm so proud of all of my students from last year.  It was really good to see them and cheer them on as they ran 13.1 miles! 

We were all really excited when we saw Moir come around the corner!  

 
We also saw our coworker Lacy run by.  I didn't get a picture because she was running faster than I anticipated (she rocked that marathon!) so I didn't have my camera ready.  But I gave her a high five!  
It was really inspiring to see all of the runners.  I love cheering on at races.  I know how much it means to me when I run a race to have people cheer me on.  It was also a bit intimidating to see the runners who were struggling because this is probably going to be me.  I've signed up for my first marathon - October 26th.  Time to get training!