The Run 26.2 Miles

When Jason and I got married, neither of us were very active. About 2 years into marriage we decided to loose some weight. Part of Jason's success is that he started running. He quickly realized that he enjoyed it and he was pretty good at it. So running is kind of how all this fitness craze got started for him. He knew if he could just make it to the run portion he could control it. Not that it wouldn't be hard, just that he could handle it.



When we saw him off on the run he, once again, had a smile on his face...a pretty good sign for being 8 hours into a race. Since the run course went past the hotel we were able to see him twice there before heading to the finish line. We almost missed him again at his first pass by the condo since he was keeping such a nice pace. This was a fun part again. People were grilling out along the run path, cheering on everyone, and even running along with participants for encouragement. This is the only race Jason has done where the race numbers had their first names on them, it is a nice touch to be able to call people by name as they pass.





Both Eli and Walker crashed somewhere between 4 and 5. Before Eli went down we discovered he was running a fever. By this point I was pretty sure that he had an ear infection, so I didn't want to wake him or take him out in the cold (or supposed to be cold) for the finish. Jayne and Dad volunteered to stay at the condo with him so we could all go to the finish. We woke Walker (which he did not care for, I think he would have slept through the night had we left him alone), both grandmas fed him dinner (and yes it took both of them) and we headed to the finish line.



This actually turned out better because my dad was able to call when Jason passed the hotel and give us a 10-15 minute warning that he was headed our way. As he headed toward the finish line it was an amazing feeling for us all. His final run time was 4:56:53, which is incredible because that is really close to his marathon time, when he is only doing a marathon, not all this stuff before it. He passed almost 200 people on the run. Like I said, this is his strong area.