Tip #1: If you decide to show up along the LA Marathon route looking for a participating friend, randomly, the chances of you finding that friend are of the needle-in-haystack variety. Best ask said friend what his running time was last year, and then try and time that to the mile you stake out.
We're just saying.
Tip #2: The handmade sign. We loved seeing the better part of Los Angeles out at the marathon, huffing/iPoding/orange-slicing away out on the street, or lining that street, applauding and remaining unsweaty. But our favorite parts were the handmade, homemade, covered-in-markers-and-stickers signs.
We're not even going to say "show us who in the world would run a marathon and not want to see a homemade sign, with their name, held by their friends and family, along the route" because we're pretty certain such a person doesn't exist. The signs at the 2009 marathon were endearing and loving and enthusiastic, and all the other signless spectators along the route looked a tad envious.
We were full of remorse for not getting our act together and making one. Plus the signs reminded us that we ourselves probably haven't put marker and glitter to posterboard since high school.
Which is sad.
So we salute you, happy, supportive sign-makers of the LA Marathon. And next year, we're making one for our bud. And we are definitely, most certainly, figuring out where he might be at what mile before we plunge headlong into the crowds and closed streets.
