Oh boy, this year's trip to the Salt Lake City marathon was fraught with dread on one side and met with great anticipation on the other. It all depended on the athlete.
John was entering this marathon with the most do-able injury so far of his running career. He's been sidelined before because of a recent surgery on his foot or knee which means an absolute "no" for the possibility of running. But then there are the times when he enters a race injured and just powers through it. This time, none of us were very optimistic that that would be possible...except for John. He's always had problems with his achilles tendon, but three weeks before the marathon, he was out running and felt something in his foot just happen. It caused a lot of pain, but he didn't know the specifics of what had happened. It was crazy to see how stressed out John was about the possibility of never running again...and how quickly he joined Weight Watchers after it happened :-). When he got in to the doctor's office a couple of days later, he was told that nothing was torn--it was just another flare up of his achilles problems. We actually were headed to Altoona that weekend where John has a physical therapy place he likes, so he went there and got a very specific stretch to supposedly help him work through it all.
Leading up to the marathon, I did everything I could to talk him out of running. He wouldn't be able to do any tests of his ankle before the marathon, so it was an all-or-nothing kind of hope. We all wondered if the Chuck Wagon would be scooping him off the course and bringing him back to the finish line. I wanted him to defer his registration, or horrors, do a shorter race. But he was determined.
On the flip side, Ethan was so excited to run the marathon. He's spent the last few months training with some people from work, even running parts of the course itself for his long training runs. He's been working through shin splints, and he got a new pair of shoes about a month back. He had so much hope in setting a new personal record.
Mark was simply along for the ride. He runs to and from work everyday, and basically runs anywhere he needs to go while on campus (all with a backpack loaded with food and school supplies). In fact, my heart just about gave out when I drove him into Ann Arbor one day, dropped him off at the mall, and saw him set off down the road, running though several feet of snow to class! He wasn't going to originally come and run the marathon because of the price of airline tickets, but when a certain baby was born for whom Mark is the namesake, he thankfully couldn't say no.
Glo and Allison were running the 10K. I don't know what Allison did to train, but I do know that Glo did absolutely nothing except accept an old pair of Hoka One Ones since she doesn't have a pair of athletic shoes herself. It kills all of us that Glo runs like a gazelle, and yet hates every step. I think she really only did it so that she wouldn't be left behind in the hotel room ;-)
And me? While in my heart I'm still a Kenyan, my body is definitely a 40-something-year-old body, riddled with injuries and bad things just waiting to happen. So I signed up for the 5K. It's almost a joke for me, because I walk 5-6 miles a day, but I figured maybe I could run part of it (despite the fact that I absolutely shouldn't).
So we headed to the expo as a bag of mixed emotions to pick up our race swag. Little Baby was signed up for the Kids 1K, but they didn't have a shirt for her. Boy-o, I about blew my top about that. But we picked up a lot of free samples of goodies and got our stuff.
We were like a well-oiled machine Saturday morning. Everybody was up on time, and how convenient that there was a men's bathroom directly across from our hotel room door because it saw a lot of use that morning! The boys all headed to the Trax station to take them to the starting line, the girls all headed directly to our own starting line.
It was a really beautiful morning. Just cool enough to feel nice, but not too cold. And there wasn't a cloud in the sky which would prove a problem later in the day.
I ran the 5K, hoping that I could finish before I had to pick up John from some random aid station. My bursitis flared terribly and is only now disappearing. Allison tore it up, finishing much faster than I expected, and I didn't get a picture of her. Glo finished just a few minutes behind her, hardly even breathing hard. We rushed back to the hotel to shower, in order to get back to see Baby run.
Oh my gosh, Baby running. This was her first official race, and I pretty much could have died. The kids were corralled according to age, and her little running leader was one of the best costumed Snow Whites I've ever seen. The parents all ran with the kids.
It wasn't a very long race for the 2-year-olds, but in true Kennedy fashion (ala our Pinewood Derby cars), Baby and Rebecca pulled through at the last minute for a SECOND place finish! YAY! And how cute was it that there were little snacks for the kids at the finish line! Baby totally rocked her Tigger shirt, seeing as she didn't have a marathon shirt, although she promptly ripped off her number when she was done.
So, here we were, three hours in, and I was still receiving notifications of John crossing certain points in the race. No joke, I couldn't help but offer up some prayers to Heavenly Father for helping him. I noticed though that Ethan and Mark weren't far ahead of him which seemed strange.
Mark ended up crossing the finish line first at 4:54:13. He looked tired, but he looked good. Ethan didn't meet his goal of a 4:15 marathon, but finished in 4:57:39, and in the biggest miracle of the day, John finished in 5:04:07. John has been telling people that it was his slowest marathon time so far (true), but that it was a blessing that he could even finish (more true).
I was pretty upset at the marathon itself when I went to have a look at the snack stations at the finish line and noticed that most of them had already packed up and left before the men crossed the line. While there had been Kodiak cakes and Chipotle chips and guac, and a million Creamies, none of that was there when they finished. I mean if we're getting down to the nitty gritty, one of the main reasons John loves this marathon is because of the Creamies at the end. I ended up seeing two kids walking around with Creamies boxes, eating popsicle after popsicle. They didn't have numbers on, so who knows if they even ran. Anyway, we gathered up some cash, and I walked up to the mom of one and asked if I could buy the popsicles off her son. She very kindly just gave them to me. However, the remaining ones were just about liquid mush by the time the men got them, so we ended up stopping at a gas station to buy a bunch of them after the marathon. Plus, by this time, the sun was beating down and everyone who crossed the finish line was burned and had sweat their weight.
I think I was the most sad for Ethan. It was obvious that it was terribly disappointed, and I didn't really want to explore what had happened. It wasn't until the next day that he could even talk about how mentally discouraged he became when the marathoners broke off from the half-marathoners. He felt alone, and just kind of lost it, and I can't blame him. Yes, marathons have their set of physical struggles, but the mental game can be just as bad. As the family all knows, I sat down and cried on a curb during my first marathon at Mile 24. And that was after I had gone into a porta-potty at Mile 21 and cried while sitting on the toilet, trying to hide my frustration (by Mile 24, I obviously didn't care who saw me). So, however much you are prepared for a marathon, it almost feels that you have to buy the winning lottery ticket to have everything go right for you on that particular day.
I'm not sure we've ever been so happy to see on an official Kennedy itinerary "nap time". Yep, we
came back to the hotel, jumped in the pool and hot tub and headed up to the hotel room to pass out. Even for my stupid 5K, my legs were sore simply because I'm not used to running.
And man, that night, pizza never tasted so good!
Thankfully, John is back to running everyday now. Mark is taking the bus to classes and work this week. And Rebecca is working on convincing Ethan to register for another marathon so can get another shot at the mental game. For sure, this won't be the last Kennedy race!
John was entering this marathon with the most do-able injury so far of his running career. He's been sidelined before because of a recent surgery on his foot or knee which means an absolute "no" for the possibility of running. But then there are the times when he enters a race injured and just powers through it. This time, none of us were very optimistic that that would be possible...except for John. He's always had problems with his achilles tendon, but three weeks before the marathon, he was out running and felt something in his foot just happen. It caused a lot of pain, but he didn't know the specifics of what had happened. It was crazy to see how stressed out John was about the possibility of never running again...and how quickly he joined Weight Watchers after it happened :-). When he got in to the doctor's office a couple of days later, he was told that nothing was torn--it was just another flare up of his achilles problems. We actually were headed to Altoona that weekend where John has a physical therapy place he likes, so he went there and got a very specific stretch to supposedly help him work through it all.
Leading up to the marathon, I did everything I could to talk him out of running. He wouldn't be able to do any tests of his ankle before the marathon, so it was an all-or-nothing kind of hope. We all wondered if the Chuck Wagon would be scooping him off the course and bringing him back to the finish line. I wanted him to defer his registration, or horrors, do a shorter race. But he was determined.
On the flip side, Ethan was so excited to run the marathon. He's spent the last few months training with some people from work, even running parts of the course itself for his long training runs. He's been working through shin splints, and he got a new pair of shoes about a month back. He had so much hope in setting a new personal record.
Mark was simply along for the ride. He runs to and from work everyday, and basically runs anywhere he needs to go while on campus (all with a backpack loaded with food and school supplies). In fact, my heart just about gave out when I drove him into Ann Arbor one day, dropped him off at the mall, and saw him set off down the road, running though several feet of snow to class! He wasn't going to originally come and run the marathon because of the price of airline tickets, but when a certain baby was born for whom Mark is the namesake, he thankfully couldn't say no.
Glo and Allison were running the 10K. I don't know what Allison did to train, but I do know that Glo did absolutely nothing except accept an old pair of Hoka One Ones since she doesn't have a pair of athletic shoes herself. It kills all of us that Glo runs like a gazelle, and yet hates every step. I think she really only did it so that she wouldn't be left behind in the hotel room ;-)
And me? While in my heart I'm still a Kenyan, my body is definitely a 40-something-year-old body, riddled with injuries and bad things just waiting to happen. So I signed up for the 5K. It's almost a joke for me, because I walk 5-6 miles a day, but I figured maybe I could run part of it (despite the fact that I absolutely shouldn't).
So we headed to the expo as a bag of mixed emotions to pick up our race swag. Little Baby was signed up for the Kids 1K, but they didn't have a shirt for her. Boy-o, I about blew my top about that. But we picked up a lot of free samples of goodies and got our stuff.
We were like a well-oiled machine Saturday morning. Everybody was up on time, and how convenient that there was a men's bathroom directly across from our hotel room door because it saw a lot of use that morning! The boys all headed to the Trax station to take them to the starting line, the girls all headed directly to our own starting line.
It was a really beautiful morning. Just cool enough to feel nice, but not too cold. And there wasn't a cloud in the sky which would prove a problem later in the day.
I ran the 5K, hoping that I could finish before I had to pick up John from some random aid station. My bursitis flared terribly and is only now disappearing. Allison tore it up, finishing much faster than I expected, and I didn't get a picture of her. Glo finished just a few minutes behind her, hardly even breathing hard. We rushed back to the hotel to shower, in order to get back to see Baby run.
Oh my gosh, Baby running. This was her first official race, and I pretty much could have died. The kids were corralled according to age, and her little running leader was one of the best costumed Snow Whites I've ever seen. The parents all ran with the kids.
It wasn't a very long race for the 2-year-olds, but in true Kennedy fashion (ala our Pinewood Derby cars), Baby and Rebecca pulled through at the last minute for a SECOND place finish! YAY! And how cute was it that there were little snacks for the kids at the finish line! Baby totally rocked her Tigger shirt, seeing as she didn't have a marathon shirt, although she promptly ripped off her number when she was done.
So, here we were, three hours in, and I was still receiving notifications of John crossing certain points in the race. No joke, I couldn't help but offer up some prayers to Heavenly Father for helping him. I noticed though that Ethan and Mark weren't far ahead of him which seemed strange.
Mark ended up crossing the finish line first at 4:54:13. He looked tired, but he looked good. Ethan didn't meet his goal of a 4:15 marathon, but finished in 4:57:39, and in the biggest miracle of the day, John finished in 5:04:07. John has been telling people that it was his slowest marathon time so far (true), but that it was a blessing that he could even finish (more true).
I was pretty upset at the marathon itself when I went to have a look at the snack stations at the finish line and noticed that most of them had already packed up and left before the men crossed the line. While there had been Kodiak cakes and Chipotle chips and guac, and a million Creamies, none of that was there when they finished. I mean if we're getting down to the nitty gritty, one of the main reasons John loves this marathon is because of the Creamies at the end. I ended up seeing two kids walking around with Creamies boxes, eating popsicle after popsicle. They didn't have numbers on, so who knows if they even ran. Anyway, we gathered up some cash, and I walked up to the mom of one and asked if I could buy the popsicles off her son. She very kindly just gave them to me. However, the remaining ones were just about liquid mush by the time the men got them, so we ended up stopping at a gas station to buy a bunch of them after the marathon. Plus, by this time, the sun was beating down and everyone who crossed the finish line was burned and had sweat their weight.
I think I was the most sad for Ethan. It was obvious that it was terribly disappointed, and I didn't really want to explore what had happened. It wasn't until the next day that he could even talk about how mentally discouraged he became when the marathoners broke off from the half-marathoners. He felt alone, and just kind of lost it, and I can't blame him. Yes, marathons have their set of physical struggles, but the mental game can be just as bad. As the family all knows, I sat down and cried on a curb during my first marathon at Mile 24. And that was after I had gone into a porta-potty at Mile 21 and cried while sitting on the toilet, trying to hide my frustration (by Mile 24, I obviously didn't care who saw me). So, however much you are prepared for a marathon, it almost feels that you have to buy the winning lottery ticket to have everything go right for you on that particular day.
I'm not sure we've ever been so happy to see on an official Kennedy itinerary "nap time". Yep, we
came back to the hotel, jumped in the pool and hot tub and headed up to the hotel room to pass out. Even for my stupid 5K, my legs were sore simply because I'm not used to running.
And man, that night, pizza never tasted so good!
Thankfully, John is back to running everyday now. Mark is taking the bus to classes and work this week. And Rebecca is working on convincing Ethan to register for another marathon so can get another shot at the mental game. For sure, this won't be the last Kennedy race!
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