Be ready for photo overload!!!!!

I believe close to or over 20 members of MRTT (Newnan/PTC, Stockbridge/McDonough, Marietta, Florida and more) were at the Allstate 13.1 on Sunday October 6th.

I volunteered to be cheerleader, paparazzi and sherpa for the race.  Seriously it’s my favorite job!!! So why would I get up at 4:15 AM on a day that I can sleep in and do nothing for a minute?  Because, the feeling you get as you are in a race/event/triathlon/etc. when you find the one person you know is there to cheer just for you, is the best feeling in the entire world.  It helps you to look forward to finding them, instead of dreading a section of the course.  Makes you smile for a minute while you are just trying to survive the big hills.  It’s all of that!!!  Since I have felt this way during my triathlons, it was my turn to return the favor.  I loved it so much when I knew i had people cheering me on when I raced, that I wanted them to feel the same way.  So I got up stupid early and met my friends to ride up to Atlanta for them to run in the Allstate 13.1.

I rode up with these wonderful ladies and then went over to Big Peach to find the rest.

They got ready for the race and I had my backpack all set to go.  The one in the middle (pink shirt) let me use her nice fancy camera to capture as many pictures as I could.

We got as many of us together as we could before the start (of course after we took the big picture, we found more).

Second pic is the McDonough/Stockbridge chapter.

See here are more!!!

I found Patrice in the starting corral (two pictures up) and snapped the selfie with her and then the most awesome pic of her right before she started.  The bottom one is hilarious b/c that’s their personalities to a T!!!  Here are my two of my favorite Florida girls!!!  See I do exist!!!  There are only two shots of me.  One at the beginning and one at the end.

So I headed up Peachtree Street to my spot where I could see them pass me 3 times.  I was right in front of Oglethorpe University.  They slowly started coming and I caught as many of them as I could.  It was hard on the first pass because it was so crowded, but it got easier the second time around.

Here is my favorite sign that was on the course!!!  He was cheering for everyone that came by him!!!

The best race photo EVER!!!!

she wanted her handheld water bottle that I had in my backpack.  We did an epic hand off.  I had it sticking out of a back pocket.  So I turned around to show her, well she ran around the volunteers, cones, then as she passed me she just grabbed it on the go.

Here they are on the final pass with about 1 mile to the finish.

My two favorite ones from the race!!!

and yes she is about to throw her bottle at me!! yes I did catch it!!

I gave high fives, hugs (yep I hugged my sweaty friends because I love them!!!), cheers, and everything in between.  Made my way back to the start/finish and found some of them.

I love the Tammy’s, they are awesome, sweat and in the short time I have known them, some of the best people out there.  I’m so glad they came up from Florida to do this race and I was able to see them.  The next time will be back at the Donna marathon where I will do a repeat of my bike duties.  Can’t wait!!!

So to answer why did I do this on my day off?  Because in a little over a year, I have met some of the most wonderful ladies and they have become my friends.  If you know me, I will do anything for the people that I care about.  So why not come up and all I had to do was stand on the side of the road with a camera, cheering for my friends.  That’s it, that’s all I did, but in reality I did much more.  It was my honor and pleasure to be there to capture their moments and share it with them.  I would do it all over again (and I will) in a heart beat.  Love you guys!!!