Sunday, September 20, 2009

The Air Force Marathon, Part 1, What Daddy Did



Picture it: 5:30 in the morning, Daddy is up and ready to go. His first competitative Marathon run. He did a 'test run' a few weeks ago, ran 26.5 miles in 4 hours and 45 minutes. So he was pretty sure he could do it. Pretty sure.



Eric is getting ready to run! 10,000 people running in a 10K, 13.1 mile, and 26.2 mile races. Lots of folks milling about. Made for 30-40,000 people spread out all over. See the plane behind him, it's the Global Hawk. I guess you could call it the official plane of the U.S. Air Force Marathon Race. It was tiny compared to other planes out there. Tiny and awesome.



Eric and the Boys right before the race. See the plane behind him, it's harder to see the little black thing with all the people. I know some other people that are tiny and awesome!



Chris already misses Daddy. Just before he sets off he grabs Christopher's hand and gives it a squeeze. So sweet. Somebody is his Daddy's boy.



On your Mark, Get Set, GO!

While Eric was running, the boys and I had plans to go to the museum at Wright Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, but Chris was content to just check out the planes and play at the park. It was neat to see the uniformed menhelping out. 3 small groups ran the 10K in full gear, boots, giant backpacks and all. I got teary watching one group come in, cheering on 1 of their group, and his backpack was being carried by someone else. There were wheelchair racers too, and those guys were really booking it! Handicapped my a**! These runners, the patriotic group, it was all so inspirational!



3 hours 50 something minutes later. Who could it be? He was hard to spot running with other red shirted runners.



But it's Daddy!

We weren't at the finish line, we opted to be near the playground, where a. Chris could play, an b. I could see him coming, then easily move the boys in for a closer view.

Our Daddy, finishing his First Marathon! Still running! He even saw us, we were easy to spot he said in our bright yellow shirts! He Waved as he blew past, he still had some pretty good speed going for a man that had just run 26.2 miles!



See how he got to run down the path to the finish line with cool planes on either side of him. Pretty awesome! I got tear eyed once again as I watched him finish.



He crossed the Finish Line in 4 hours and 21 seconds. Super awesome!!!



And then he was Done! I was so proud of him. He had to sit down, but he had fun and he was happy. Someone told Eric that the Air Force and Disney mararthons have the prettiest medals. His medal was so pretty! It had a Global Hawk on it, and flags and jets on the ribbons, and it was heavy, but looked so good on him.

And Chris had a surprise for Daddy. A magnet for his car that reads 26.2. Because now Daddy is a Marathon Runner!

1 comments:

Carla S said...

Tell him congrats! That's awesome!