Okinawa City Marathon 2013.

This past Sunday, a small group of Stroller Warriors gathered near mile 18-20 of the Okinawa City marathon to cheer on the runners. The mile we were at (not quite sure, it was between 18-20) was on the air base, which doesn't have a lot of support compared to the remainder of the course.

I had much more fun this year on the day of the marathon compared to last year. Last year, I got stuck driving off base for an hour and a half, due to road closures and traffic. Needless to say, I was highly irritated. This year, I was inspired by the runners, and in good spirits thanks to my wonderful company.

There were so many funny costumes; I'm not sure how some of them were able to run in said costumes, I probably would've thrown up and then passed out from heat stroke. Evelyn really liked the panda bear costumes.

There was one really moving scene from the marathon that honestly made me tear up. There was a tandem running team and they each had a finger looped through a headband. The older man was leading the younger man, because the younger man was blind and couldn't run the marathon by himself. Unfortunately we did not get a picture of it, but I have the photo in my mind, and it is beautiful.

Here are some photos from the Okinawa City marathon. Enjoy a small peek into some of the silly costumes and big crowds!

Evelyn took her ponytail out ... no bueno.

 

Getting situated for the runners to come through Kadena.

One of the many panda bears.

J with her sticks of Vaseline, plus the tub.*

He good-naturedly took time out of his run to pose for a photo.

This older gentleman got a small boost of energy and took off after he grabbed a gummy bear from me. :)

Stroller Warriors group.

* See the photo of the woman holding the sticks with Vaseline on them? This was Kelly's idea -- easy to grab and go to help with chafing. Unfortunately not one but two Japanese runners grabbed the Vaseline, not quite understanding that it was for chafing. They ate it. We all yelled, "No no no no NOOO!" but they kept on running. I assume they thought it was a type of electrolyte paste, or something.

After the first incident, Jess decided to hold up the tub of Vaseline as well, to hopefully deter others from consuming it. The second incident happened after she was holding up the tub of Vaseline but to be fair, it was smeared on small plastic spoons because we had run out of wooden sticks. So unfortunate, and we all felt so bad. We all ended up laughing because we weren't sure what else to do. I can't imagine how awful it must have tasted.