So I don’t always write as much on our accomplishments, but this past weekend Jenn and I both successfully completed a marathon.
Jenn’s was a marathon of physical endurance as she completed the Space Coast Marathon in 3:37:40 (chip time). This was under her goal of 3:40 and allowed her to qualify for the Boston Marathon. She also placed 3rd in her age group. I can only say that I am beyond impressed.
Now my marathon was more one of a mental endurance test. See Saturday night, I kept the kids at home, packed for the next day and then got them out of bed, dressed (probably wasn’t Grace’s best hair day unfortunately), and out the door by 7:10 am to make the one hour trip to the race.
Along the way I managed to feed Grace breakfast with one hand and navigate an unexpected bathroom stop.
Once we got to the race, Nolin and Grace were very interested for the first 10 minutes. The only problem…we had missed Jenn at the halfway point by about 40 minutes which meant we had a little over an hour before we would see her toward the finish of the race. Oh what to do?
Nolin desperately wanted to be part of the race, so eventually he led Pap-Pap in several foot races along the side of the course. Nolin won every time, but Pap-Pap kept racing him. Grace simply had no desire to sit in a stroller and just wanted to go up to everyone and say hi.
Finally we saw Jenn sprinting towards the finish line…it was exciting and awesome. So exciting in fact that as soon as Nolin saw Jenn at the finish line, he wanted to race her too. Teresa looked at Jenn and simply said I can’t catch him, so Jenn did her best to run after him after running 26.2 miles…just what she wanted to do.
After the race, we had to wait for about 90 minutes for them to present Jenn with her award. This gave Nolin and Grace time to check out the astronauts, space shuttles and teach Pap-Pap to dance.
It was a great day, but when it came time to leave, I had two exhausted kids who had never really eaten a full breakfast. I figured as the three of us started to drive home, the two of them would both fall asleep for the car ride.
That is when the 25 mile motorcycle toy ride started, which forced us to turn off the car and park as they shut down the streets for over 45 minutes while all the bikes made their way and of course Nolin thought this was way cooler than sleep. Grace on the other hand was trying her best to fall asleep with no luck. It was mile 22 for me.
We eventually made our way home and thanks to babysitting services provided by Grammy & Pap-Pap, we celebrated with a semi-date night / dinner out with some other runners from the race and their spouses who also participated in the mental marathon.
Nolin teaching Pap-Pap to dance…
Our Modern Family 