Sunday, March 21, 2010

ING Marathon!

I am SO proud of Chris for completing his first (and last?) marathon today!!! I had tears in my eyes as he crossed the finish line, still running and smiling, and was so happy for him and this big accomplishment!

This morning, before church, the kids and I made a sign for daddy. Well, I obviously wrote the words, then I gave them "real" markers (as opposed to "magic markers" that only write on "magic paper"...if you don't have kids yet, one day you will learn the beauty of such things). Ryan F-L-I-P-P-E-D out when he had blue marker on his hand, so after a quick attempt at that (maybe 45 seconds?) we switched to decorating our sign with stickers. Ahh, much better.

We picked up Leigh-Ann and her kids and they came to church with us (as Chris and her husband, Jonathan were running together). We left church and were planning to grab lunch when I got a text from Chris that he had 2 miles to go! So we scratched that and attempted to navigate downtown with many roads closed due to the course. NIGHTMARE. I'll just say that after trying to get directions from a man with an Indian accent so thick we couldn't understand him and a cop blowing us off to chat with his police friend instead (and Leigh-Ann telling him her thoughts on that...hope he didn't catch my license plate number!) we found the finish line and even managed to score the closest spot we possibly could, short of parking on the sidewalk--and got it for free. Glorious! (Literally, both of us pregnant with 2 kids each, we only had to cross 1 street and walk 20ish yards to the gate. And, did I mention, free? I think it might have been vendor or police parking, but there were no signs and noone to pay.) Thankfully we got there when we did because Chris crossed the finish line about 7 minutes after we arrived!

Waiting for daddy (she hardly took her eyes off the road watching for her daddy!!)



We are so proud!





Crossing the finish line!!



"Look, daddy!"



Then took off running to meet him



Showing daddy the sign we made.



Proud kids, tired daddy.



Family picture:



The runners, Chris and, his best friend, Jonathan



By the time we neared home it was 2, so we stopped at McDonalds for a victory lunch (??) to feed overly tired and hungry kids (who all did awesome and were complete troopers!).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

haha, yes, it was fun. so glad we got to go together, what a nightmare it would have been if we were alone with 2 kids each. and, arg to that cop...still!

Leigh-Ann

The Bartons said...

congrats chris! BIG accomplishment!

Leslie said...

Congratulations Chris!

Mom said...

So proud of you, Chris! In those pix you look amazingly fresh to have just finished 26.2 miles!

Liz said...

Janelle,
Tell Chris Congrats from us! Huge accomplishment. Also, we are thinking and praying for you. We know you will be an awesome mother of 3! Keep us posted!

Jonesey said...

Hey congratulations to Chris on his marathon. I always think of having a baby as a HUGE Marathon, so look at you two both finishing your races together. Good job! (and I can't wait to share this with Jones!)