Capital City Marathon: Three races have combined total of 1,916 finishers

The water stop at Mile No. 25 is the end of the line.

All 1,916 finishers racing the marathon, half-marathon and 5-mile races during the 35th annual Capital City Marathon passed through it on Sunday.

Two tables lined with recyclable cups of water and a mixture of orange-flavored Ultima Replenisher are planted right before the final curve. From there, racers have a 1-mile trot downhill to a welcoming crowd at the finish line.

Melissa Graves was the final 5-mile participant to cycle through the stop, and she finished the race with a brace around the lower portion of her left leg, and a cane in her right hand.

“I can’t run in any stretch of the imagination right now,” Graves said. “It was more about setting goals and being brave enough to start, even when it’s not going to look the way you want it to.

“I didn’t want to just sit and watch it all go by.”

Graves, a 37-year-old Olympia resident, has run the half-marathon three times. Last August, she suffered a spinal cord injury when a person jumped offstage and landed on her neck at a concert.

She was hospitalized at Harborview for five weeks with an uncertain future.

“They’ll always tell you with an incomplete, they don’t know,” Graves said. “They’ll just say it’s an incomplete, you may or you may not (walk again). But I started walking — with a great deal of assistance — in the hospital, so I knew that I would walk; they just didn’t know what level.

“Will it be something I can do functionally? Will I ever walk well, fast? It’s still really early on.”

Graves said the first year of rehabilitation following a spinal cord injury is the most crucial. The aftereffects of her injury are similar to those of a person who has had a stroke.

“My injury is kind of bizarre because my right side is strong and my left side is weak,” she said. “Instead of a certain level down, I’m more split in half vertically.”

Graves decided she wanted to participate in the 5-mile race in December. She started Sunday’s race with her 9-year-old daughter, Makena, who finished seventh in her age bracket in 47 minutes, 35 seconds.

“(Melissa’s) had this goal set for a long time,” said her husband Bryan.

He and Graves’ father, Rick, joined her, side-by-side for the race. Graves and her husband were both wearing shirts with a design similar to the chain of human evolution. Their shirts, instead, showed the progression from a person sitting in a wheelchair to a person walking.

“I obviously went home from the hospital in a wheelchair, and I have just been rehabbing and progressing through,” Graves said.

MAKING A POSITIVE SPLASH

Students involved in Key Club at Olympia and Capital high schools staffed the water station at Mile No. 25.

“Most of the people are really energetic and trying to cheer, so we were cheering with them,” said Allison Zhang, and Olympia High School junior. “They’re always really happy.”

The eight girls handing out cups of water were part of a corps of more than 500 volunteers that assisted on race day. At the final water station, the girls offered words of encouragement, refreshments and even a couple of water baths at the request of racers.

“I like meeting new people and seeing more things,” Capital freshman Ingrid Redford said. “If I didn’t volunteer, I probably wouldn’t experience a lot of the things I do — like watching the marathon.”

‘THE VERY BEST SCENERY IN THIS AREA’

Former U.S. Olympic distance runner, Jeff Galloway, joined the masses on Sunday to race in his first-ever marathon in Washington. Galloway, 70, and his wife Barbara decided not to tour the course before the race.

“What a fabulous course, what a fabulous event,” Galloway said after he finished the race. “I think that it has the very best in scenery in this area, and a lot of downhill at the finish. The course was well-supported, well-organized and I’m going to be telling a lot of people about this event.”

32 IN A ROW

Jim Thatcher’s bib number sported an eerily familiar number — 32.

“What a coincidence,” the 67-year-old marathoner joked.

Thatcher finished his 32nd consecutive Capital City Marathon on Sunday. He has the longest active streak of any of the race’s participants.

He crossed the finish line alongside Heidi Perry and Linda Huyck — who won the women’s marathon — at his side, just as he has for the past seven years.

“It’s phenomenal,” Thatcher said. “The special thing is I got to see (Huyck) blaze by me about Mile 10, and she was looking good. I just encouraged her.”

Huyck finished the race — her second consecutive victory — with severe leg cramping, but joined Thatcher and Perry, who was bicycling alongside Thatcher since Mile No. 22, for the final stretch.

“That was super special,” Thatcher said. “Team effort.”

This story was originally published May 15, 2016 at 6:17 PM with the headline "Capital City Marathon: Three races have combined total of 1,916 finishers."