Pacing Salisbury Marathon

Salisbury Marathon 04.04.26

“A marathon is a marathon no matter the pace.”

Seeing Mike Wardian warming up at the start and chatting with Bart Yasso at the finish line was pretty cool (or “tough” as the kids say). What was really cool, was hearing the stories of the everyday runner. As a pacer, you get to hear so many.

My job as a pacer was to keep steady throughout the entire 5 hours, be upbeat and positive, distract, encourage, and when the sun rose temps to 83° to remind runners to hydrate, fuel and listen to their bodies.

I met some absolutely incredible runners, and with a 5-hour goal time, many were first time marathoners while others were experienced and knew the name of the heat game. Either way, I loved hearing their stories - how some were running for the first time with their partner, family trivia, best races and race day fails, the guy who ran an extra 6-7 (haha) miles just to get his wife to the half of her first marathon, the group of 20 from Richmond who would ALL cross the finish line, the Naval Academy cheerleader who ran the Bloomsday 12k with her mom since she was 10 years old but couldn’t this year so she just decided to run her first marathon (!!), first time marathoner Edward’s face on signs along the course, Jill and her husband from Tennessee who are running in every state, and I can’t leave out fellow pacer Marie who ran her 712th marathon! Many did not train in this heat and so many dropped back. I could tell they felt defeated and all I could hope for is that when I saw them cross the finish line they knew how AWESOME and INSPIRING they were to me, other runners, their families & friends!

Congrats to all runners and pacers @sbymarathon!!“Tough time never last, only tough people last.”

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