Bob Dylan music blared from a loudspeaker by the Armory, while Lisa Antognozzi stood in front of Valentini's Vicino Lago restaurant at
14th Avenue East offering a large tin pan filled with meatballs.
"Mostly just people who aren't elite runners are willing to have a meatball," Antognozzi observed.
As thousands pounded the pavement to the finish line, sometimes the real show was found along the sides of the road at Grandma's Marathon on Saturday.
Fans made one thing clear: Quitting was out of the question.
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"Keep it going," a woman yelled, gesturing with her neon megaphone. "You go, baby!"
"Go go go go, goooo runners go!" chanted the Superior High School cheerleading squad, their voices sailing down the busy street between Ninth and 10th avenues east. "We are proud, we are proud of you."
For Helena Semborski, entering ninth grade in Superior this fall, it was her first time cheering in front of a crowd.
"Go go! You're almost there! You can do it," Semborski yelled, clapping her hands and pumping her fists and smiling as a runner gave her the thumbs-up.
"We try to do whatever we can to encourage them," Semborski said. "If we see a name, we'll try and personalize our cheers for them. We'll yell out numbers, try to go by their colors. Something like, 'Go guy in orange!' Just so they know we're here for them."
They had been cheering since 8 a.m. and planned to stick it out until the end, she said.
Messages from spectators along the course ranged from the simple: "You can do it, runners" to the bossy: "Run like you WANT to!" to the blunt: "You can do it, Kirk. No one ever drowned in sweat."
Amy Halverson stood on Superior Street, holding a neon-green sign with names sprawled across it. This was Halverson's first year at Grandma's Marathon. She came this year to support co-workers from St. Scholastica.
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"It's just amazing to see," Halverson said. "There is only about three miles left -- and look at them go! I can't even run that fast when I first start."
Other Grandma's spottings:
Runners closer to the finish line were able to witness the exotic movements of a dozen belly dancers stationed outside of India Palace. "We've come down every year for five years," said Fern Lemey, a member of the Die Hard Divas dance team. "The runners really appreciate it. Some of them are dancing with us as they run by -- we even had one man come back to take a picture with us."
The experience of a full symphony orchestra was offered outside the Holiday Center, as almost 40 people from the Proctor Community Band serenaded runners. Little kids danced across the street, and people walking by stopped to check it out. "Gradually let it speed up into polka tempo," the conductor told musicians as the beat of the drum picked up speed.
Despite temperatures approaching an uncomfortable level for runners and onlookers, one spectator was enjoying the hot summer day -- a golden retriever taking a nap sprawled out beneath the sun. "He's got the right idea," said one runner passing by.
