Luke Culpepper

Austin Motorola Marathon

February 17, 2002

I just wrote an entire marathon story but realized it looked exactly the same as everyone else’s. Yeah it was hard, and yeah I was sore as hell afterwards. However, there was so much more to this day than simply the run itself.

Runners are of a different breed. You will not find more friendly strangers than in running. I saw a finisher picture of two guys literally carrying one guy across the finish line because his legs gave out.

There were volunteers everywhere doing something to help you out. I know my face probably didn’t look it at the time, but the things they did were appreciated a lot. Then there was the UT Marathon team kickin’ it up a notch. I saw all you guys twice and it was so cool.

I saw Josh Davis cheering around mile 4 of the race. Some people don’t know him, but he is a US Olympic swimmer who went to UT and also my high school. All the bands playing definitely gave me some ’rhythm’ in my stride....especially the group of drummers. The worst part was running on Caesar Chavez and being able to look across Town Lake at the finish. My fatigue incidentally caused me to think “surely it is O.K. to cross here” (damn those chip checkpoints). I got some “power beads” towards the end of the race but they were bouncing on my neck. I took them off to hold them but they were too heavy, so I threw them back *nicely* to one of the givers, and explained my excuse. Seeing the smirks on their faces, hearing that their beads were too heavy for me, was quite an ego check.

Steer clear of the beer. The smell almost caused a regurgitation of the 5 “gu” packets I had had.

I finished, an accomplishment in itself, in 3:25:25. That got me 9th place in my age group which was another highlight.

The best part of the whole race was having friends and family there. I yelled at Professor Doug but his name had changed to Professor I’mcrazyrunnerrunningtoofasttohearanyone. Then I saw Kristen S. and afterwards saw Frenchman Nicolas, Jen, and Bri. Along with the team, my parents and a couple of my closest friends ran. It all made the race very sweet.

-Luke Culpepper