Going to watch your friends run a marathon is not unlike being an astronomer and waiting for the next solar eclipse, or so I imagine. Not being an astronomer I can only draw my opinion from those 3 weeks I spent in Astronomy 101 at UVa because I was told it was a gut class. I have since realised that G.U.T. really stands for: Getting Ulcers from Teargas or possibly Galactically Unbearable Talkinghead. Anyway, after three weeks I saw the error of my ways and transfered into a class infinitely more uplifting like The Study of Extinctions: Past, Present and Future. I came away from the This-is-Not-a-Class-About-UFOs class with three kernals of wisdom:

1. That bright ring around the sun is named after a Mexican Beer
2. Astronomists are even more boring than Physicists and Philosophers combined.
3. Astronomers tend to do a lot of staring and waiting, which sheds some light on kernal number 2.

Which brings me back to going to the Marine Corp Marathon to watch your friends run 26.2 gruelling miles. I imagine that solar eclipse specialists spend most of their time calculating and recalculating the time and best viewing spot of their next sighting. They then spend what seems like years waiting for the planets to align for that one brief moment of joy and excitement before it's over and they face another arduous trip to the next viewing area, which is likely on the other side of the world, and more stagnant waiting. They see their fellow astronomers come and go getting their own brief hoorahs with meteor showers and comets, sometimes you even get to share a little in their excitement, but mostly you're too caught up with staring and waiting for your own eclipse. When that exclipse does come, you throw a party, there's drinks and munchies, lots of pictures and then it's over and you're off again. So goes the life of a marathon cheerleader.

On Sunday, Naomi and Catherine and some thousands of other asylum escapies ran 26.2 miles for seemingly no apparent reason besides the chance of completely guilt free gluttony that follows a marathon. I saw one guy who's shirt read "The reward is in the Journey" but he must have been talking about the band cause I saw a lot of punishment and no rewards around Mile 21 or so. Why you people do it, I may never fully understand but I'd still like to say congrats and that you have more determination, endurance, and will-power than I will ever see in my entire life! You guys continue to amaze me.