For John, it was the end of "marathon season", and he always anticipates it. One last marathon for the year, and then a break from training for a couple of months.
Baltimore. It's a great marathon, but John runs it for the shirt. Under Armor is the sponsor, and the shirts are spectacular.
For Johannah, this is the end of a very long goal. She has been working on losing weight for the past eight months and working on living a more healthy lifestyle. She knew she needed to start exercising, and running was the easiest thing to do. She has been following a half marathon training plan for months now, even getting up at the crack of dawn at Interlochen to go running before a full day of rehearsals. She knew that if she had a goal, she would keep running, and she has.
She wanted to run her first half marathon and join "the wall of fame" in our home. She wanted her picture up with the marathon pictures of John and me, and the half marathon photos of her brothers. She wanted a medal too, and the cool shirt to wear that tells the world, "Yes, I am awesome! I ran a half marathon!"
We headed down to Baltimore Friday night, met up with Ethan, had a most delicious dinner at Olive Garden, and arrived at the hotel. Not just any hotel either. The hotel which sits directly in front of the marathon starting line! After having climbed fences in the past, and walked through a field of wet grass, or having run several miles to the starting line, I have learned to reserve the nearby hotel and reap the benefits.
One thing I forgot: there were five of us, in a room that slept four. So often now, we don't travel as a complete family (and even now we are missing Mark), and I didn't realize we wouldn't have enough bed space. No problem--Glo can sleep on the floor..... NOT! Glo has gotten old enough to realize that sleeping on the floor just isn't cool anymore.
So, to give the runners a good night's sleep, Ethan, Glo and I packed into one bed, with Hannah and John in the other one. THIS IS WHAT WE DO, BABY!!! Turns out, John was up the entire night, sick, so he didn't get much sleep anyway. Darn stress. It gets John everytime.
We woke up in the morning, and the four of us just rolled out of bed and headed to the starting line, while John took care of those last minute visits to the porcelain throne. As poorly as he felt, he looked great at the starting line, and he was excited to get running.
Hannah's race started almost two hours later, but she seemed in good spirits too. She was a bit quiet, feeling some stress about the 13.1 miles. However, we walked with her as far as we could (she was in the fifth wave of runners), and then we waved goodbye and shouted "good luck"!
We headed back in time (or so we thought) to catch both John and Hannie crossing the finish line. Turns out, the one time that I didn't show up 30 minutes early, John finished earlier than he expected, and we missed him! We got a phone call from him (while waiting for Hannie to finish), telling us that he had already finished (in 4:10, a great time for John this year) and he would meet us at the reunion zone.
Hannie was so cute. She was running with her iPhone because it doubles as her iPod, so we would get occasional updates from her as to where she was at the moment (between miles 8 and 9, or about 15 minutes from the finish line). I can only imagine what the other runners thought, seeing her texting us on the course :-)
She finished in 2:43, but the time doesn't really matter for your first long run. All that really matters is that she finished! Her legs were killing her, as were her feet, and I must admit that she looked a little bit like she was going into shock. As she told me later, while running she swore she would never do another race again, but an hour after the race, she knew that she MUST do one again. Or, as she points out, she loves to run, except when she's running :-) She's a girl after my own heart!
Congratulations to both John and Johannah! We are so proud of you!
Baltimore. It's a great marathon, but John runs it for the shirt. Under Armor is the sponsor, and the shirts are spectacular.
For Johannah, this is the end of a very long goal. She has been working on losing weight for the past eight months and working on living a more healthy lifestyle. She knew she needed to start exercising, and running was the easiest thing to do. She has been following a half marathon training plan for months now, even getting up at the crack of dawn at Interlochen to go running before a full day of rehearsals. She knew that if she had a goal, she would keep running, and she has.
She wanted to run her first half marathon and join "the wall of fame" in our home. She wanted her picture up with the marathon pictures of John and me, and the half marathon photos of her brothers. She wanted a medal too, and the cool shirt to wear that tells the world, "Yes, I am awesome! I ran a half marathon!"
We headed down to Baltimore Friday night, met up with Ethan, had a most delicious dinner at Olive Garden, and arrived at the hotel. Not just any hotel either. The hotel which sits directly in front of the marathon starting line! After having climbed fences in the past, and walked through a field of wet grass, or having run several miles to the starting line, I have learned to reserve the nearby hotel and reap the benefits.
One thing I forgot: there were five of us, in a room that slept four. So often now, we don't travel as a complete family (and even now we are missing Mark), and I didn't realize we wouldn't have enough bed space. No problem--Glo can sleep on the floor..... NOT! Glo has gotten old enough to realize that sleeping on the floor just isn't cool anymore.
So, to give the runners a good night's sleep, Ethan, Glo and I packed into one bed, with Hannah and John in the other one. THIS IS WHAT WE DO, BABY!!! Turns out, John was up the entire night, sick, so he didn't get much sleep anyway. Darn stress. It gets John everytime.
We woke up in the morning, and the four of us just rolled out of bed and headed to the starting line, while John took care of those last minute visits to the porcelain throne. As poorly as he felt, he looked great at the starting line, and he was excited to get running.
We headed back in time (or so we thought) to catch both John and Hannie crossing the finish line. Turns out, the one time that I didn't show up 30 minutes early, John finished earlier than he expected, and we missed him! We got a phone call from him (while waiting for Hannie to finish), telling us that he had already finished (in 4:10, a great time for John this year) and he would meet us at the reunion zone.
Hannie was so cute. She was running with her iPhone because it doubles as her iPod, so we would get occasional updates from her as to where she was at the moment (between miles 8 and 9, or about 15 minutes from the finish line). I can only imagine what the other runners thought, seeing her texting us on the course :-)
She finished in 2:43, but the time doesn't really matter for your first long run. All that really matters is that she finished! Her legs were killing her, as were her feet, and I must admit that she looked a little bit like she was going into shock. As she told me later, while running she swore she would never do another race again, but an hour after the race, she knew that she MUST do one again. Or, as she points out, she loves to run, except when she's running :-) She's a girl after my own heart!Congratulations to both John and Johannah! We are so proud of you!
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| The winners! |
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| The losers: Gimp Leg, Broken Back, and Always Skinny.... (John swore I would NEVER publish this picture. Yep, just tell me I won't do something to get me to do it...) |
Johannah rocks and is such an inspiration to me - all I did this Saturday was run a measly 5K! Also, I love the last picture, especially your beautiful bag Larisa!
ReplyDeleteJohannah you are one tough cookie! I love your pig tails! Once a 1/2 marathoner..always a 1/2 marathoner! You rock!
ReplyDeleteWay to go Johannah and John! :)
ReplyDelete