What kind of things can a spectator do to motivate you during a race? Or if not motivate you, at least make you smile on the inside?
Have hot chicks standing around. I guarantee you won’t walk.
I think all IM races should publish the participant list for spectators. As goofy as it seems at times, having a complete stranger cheer you on by name is fantastic.
Costumes and other oddities give you something to look at and think about.
Have hot chicks standing around. I guarantee you won’t walk. Yeah, but if they’re hot and you’re smart, you’d forget all about the race, pull over, and try to score a date. I’m looking for ways to make you go faster. 
Have you done the Boomsday in Spokane? Hilarious.
Bloomsday isn’t my cup of tea, to be honest. It’s not a race, it’s a big goofy event. Every year I endure days of stupid local coverage about a bunch of middle-aged, overweight dopes who don’t run any other day of the year, but think it’s just fantastic that they get to put on a stupid looking hat and jog/walk their way through 12K. Whatever.
Are you ornery today? All that OT conversation getting to you?
I think all IM races should publish the participant list for spectators. As goofy as it seems at times, having a complete stranger cheer you on by name is fantastic.
That’s a good idea.
What sort of cheering encourages you folks? What’s the best thing you ever heard from a spectator?
I think all IM races should publish the participant list for spectators. As goofy as it seems at times, having a complete stranger cheer you on by name is fantastic.
But with 2000 participants that can be tough to look up in time to yell. I like the races that put your name on the race number, especially if you are so bonked and so far gone that you forget they’ve done that and so you wonder why everybody knows your name.
Motivation:
Running next to (being passed by Ryan Bolton) at the end of his run/start of my second loop at IMLP02 - pretty young woman yells “Hey Ryan” and pretends she’s in New Orleans!
Unmotivating:
Later that year about mile 20 on the run at IMWI - young girl on a bike crosses the course just behind me on her bike and catches my back foot causing me to do a Superman imitation and collect gravel in my palms!
Lesson:
Stay near the MPROs for motivation!