New York City Marathon, 2001

During the five and half hours, you meet a lot of people, especially anyone else that is wearing Texas state flag jogging shorts (they were all from Houston for some strange reason). As one Houstonian put it, "Less than one-one thousanth of a percent of the world population can claim thay can or ever have run a marathon". That one sentence said a lot, and really kept me going. I can't take credit for the flag or the smile. When I was in the last half mile on 59th Street close to Columbus Circle, a girl passed me and told to not forget to smile when I crossed the finish line. I think I started cussing at her in my mind, because I was in so much pain, smilling was the last of my worries. But right before I got to the finish, there was a little girl holding and waiving two small American flags. I waved at her and gave her a friendly nod, and her Dad said, "Take the Flag... Take The Flag!!!". So I took the flag from her, and her face lit up like a Pepsi commercial. Then I saw the the lights, the finish line, the bridge with cameras recording everyone crossing and I remembered the girl telling me to smile. So, I smiled for my mom, cause I knew she would want that picture to hang in her office.