Children and adults reach out their arms, offering sponges, water, chunks of oranges. A few are walking. The encouragement works. A runner who had been walking breaks into a shuffle. At the top of Heartbreak, the crowds get thicker still.
Spectators spill onto the road, reach out to the runners, scream their support.
The hill is all yours. The marathoners keep coming, the slow followed by the slower. Veronica and Sara stay near their table, silent now as they watch the runners pass. Occasionally one or the other offers a cup of water. Their clapping starts and stops, fading often as they become absorbed in the human drama.