Have Cowbell will travel - NOT!

Early sunday mornings are usually set aside for cartoons, pancakes and the newspaper. But this morning, we gathered our cowbell, maracas, soccer drum and other noisemakers to cheer on the 11,000 runners of the San Jose Rock and Roll Marathon. The race course was literally outside our front door, so it was easy to roll out of bed, gather the kids and coffee and catch all the fun.

Here is a picture of the first runners.  Their backs of course, because my crappy camera is not fast enough to capture these Kenyan athletes.  It was like poetry in action to watch them zoom by.  The winner McDonald Ondara finished the race in 1 hour and 1 minute.  Geez, sometimes it takes me that long to make coffee. We also we graced to see Kenyan Magdalene Makunzi, the fastest female finisher.  Wow!  While many of the winners were international, most were local and more than half were women.

The kids from the block gathered their musical instruments and flags. We made up songs to welcome singers like,(sung to the tune of 80's classic Oh Mickey!) "Oh runners, you're so fine. You're so fine you blow our minds - oh runners! oh, oh, oh runners!"   (Really, it sounded better at 8:30 a.m..)   We had a blast and it reminded me of what I LOVE about Silicon Valley.  The neighbors were out to cheer strangers and friends on, all the kids on the block were playing and the runners represented the best and strangest of the Valley.   Here were the "princess" runners and a guy with a rainbow mohawk, while it doesn't come close to the zaniness of the Bay to Breakers, it was a great way to spend the morning. 

I have walked/run a few 1/2 marathons in my time and have thought about running in the race next year, but as I sat in my lawn chair, cowbell in one hand and coffee mug in the other - well, cheering others with my singing seems much saner:) Rock on Runners!  You blew our minds! Oh runners!

This was originally posted on SV Moms Blog.

Comments

[Jill Asher]

Hi!!!
I hope next year I can run this half marathon. I heard it is a LOT of fun.

Actually, if I run it... I will be the really, really, really SLOW runner passing by your house! :)

[Jeanie27Franco]

It's good that we are able to get the loan and that opens completely new chances.

[Cheyenne]

I read this article with great pleasure. Thanks you for such wonderful things.