Can anyone suggest a good Spectating Training Program?

I start out with the best of intentions and a great plan. I get my maps memorized. I even ride my bike so I can cheer from multiple spots. I get everyone's bib number and write them down. I review pictures of my friends so that I really know who I am looking for.

I just can't seem to get the hang of it.

Back in July, I went to watch the San Francisco Marathon and Half-Marathon. Two of my Nuun Platuun-mates, Cupcake and Tonia, were running in it and I was super excited to show my support! I made all those preparations outlined above. And I missed them both. To make things more embarrassing, they both saw me...and hollered at me :P

Today was the Nike Women's Marathon and Half-Marathon. Held in San Francisco and billed as the largest all-women (and a few good men) running event in the world, a whole lot of local runners I know from blogs and in person were running. So I busted out the bike, printed up my map, wrote down numbers and headed over to the Foggy City by the Bay.

The day before, I had gotten awesome text messages and tweets and Facebook messages... all encouraging and supportive!

"You can do it!"
"Go XL!"
"You've got it this time!"

Stuff like that. Stuff you'd tell a friend who was running...not so much to a friend who was going to be spectating. But they're funny like that :)

I arrived at what I thought would be a good time to what I thought would be an excellent location. I whooped and hollered and whistled and clapped really loudly for a while. This part I am really good at :) Then I realized that either they had passed right in front of me or my timing was off. So I went to another spot a bit further along in the course where the same thing happened. I headed to the finish line. For sure I'd see them cross it, and I would be redeemed as a spectator!

It was not to be.

I arrived at 1:50:xx and eagle-eyed what I could see of the chute until 2:08:xx... I saw no one I was looking for. I was so bummed. I knew they were fast, but wow! In this crowd? was what I kept thinking.

I am a really crappy spectator for my friends... but I did take this picture at the finish area so I could prove that I did, in fact, try!

Joan Benoit Samuelson was at the finish line, helping the San Francisco Fire Department greet the finishers... they were graciously shaking hands, high-fiving and smiling while saying "good job" and "congratulations" and stuff like that. I could hear them. I really, really was there. I swear it.

While I didn't find my friends...

again...

I did discover something really cool...there is an archery range in Golden Gate Park...

And did you know that they use about a million school buses from all over the Bay Area to move the tens of thousands of athletes from one end of the San Francisco to the other...

No fancy tour buses, the whole roadway was full of economical yellow school buses...

I guess when they give out Tiffany necklaces to all 30,000 finishers, they need to cut corners somewhere. 

What should I do differently? Anyone have foolproof pointers for spectating? Maybe I just need to try smaller races?