All About Us!: It's RACE Time!

The pictures are backwards for the Marathon going from bottom to top the 5k goes from top to bottom!

We got up at about 6a.m. and had breakfast at our hotel, we then went and parked for the race. We had to walk about a mile to get to the starting line and it wasn't cold but there was a pretty icy wind so we had to try to bundle up! We all stood in line for the porta potty that took about a 1/2 hour, it was interesting to see so many people gathered in one spot just to go to the bathroom. After using the facilities we tried to keep warm as we waited for Kevin's race to begin! Kevin did a little warming up and then it was finally time, we were able to get a good spot to see him start but after that there was no really good place to see him again. Kaiden's 5k started 30 mins. after Kevin so he warmed up and stretched and then got into his starting spot, he wanted to be up front and being small he was able to get right on the line! He started his race and again we were able to see him really well but we were not able to see him out on the course. Evelyn had to pee really bad so while we waited for Kaiden we ran back to the bathrooms, we didn't make it! I didn't have time to go back to the car before Kaiden finished so I decided we would wait and go to the car after, Evelyn refused to wear Kaiden warm up pants so that was frustrating. Kaiden finished and they announced his name and age as he crossed, he got his finisher's metal and then jumped passed the ropes to me because he was having a hard time walking. His thighs and groin muscles were hurting, he stretched out and kept walking around but he seemed to be in pain for the next two hours. He was happy with the effort he gave he said he felt like he shaved 3 minutes off his time, he did get a new PR. Evelyn decided that her pants were dry and didn't want to go to the car, she wanted to be able to see Kevin at mile 17 and if we went to the car we would miss the first bus to the cheer zone and therefore miss Kevin. So we decided to head over to the bus stop, we waited there for about 20 mins. before the bus showed up, Koen fell asleep and stayed asleep for the rest of the race. We arrived at the cheer zone about 10 mins before Kevin came running by looking like he was just out for a jog! He looked really good and the kids were so excited to see him, he was in 6th place at that point. While we waited for him to loop back around Kaiden fell and skinned his knee, and Evelyn and I both stepped in dog poo! Koen blissfully slept through everything! The cheer zone was in the shade so of course we all started to get cold again! The bus came back before Kevin came back and I had to decide if I wanted to stay and see Kevin and mile 21 risking that we would miss him finish or go back and for sure see him finish. I figured he would appreciate it more if we stayed so we did. He came back by about 3 mins after the bus left and it was another 25 mins before the bus came back, I was sure we would miss seeing him finish. When we got to the finish line the time on the clock was still under 3 hours so I was hopeful that we hadn't missed him, we got in a good position and waited. After about 2 mins. the kids were convinced he had already finished and we were wasting our time. I was sure we hadn't missed him yet, we waited until 3hours 10 mins. and the first girl finisher was crossing and then I decided that we must have missed him some how and we went looking for him! He crossed the finish line at 3 hours 13 mins he literally rounded the corner as we walked away!!!! We were able to catch up with him in the shoot! He looked pretty tired but he seemed fine. We went and ate our Lunch and then met up with Tim and Angela! It was a pretty great race!

Koen was super tired after the 5k so he took a little nap!

Kaiden had a good strong start and he ran hard the whole way finishing at 22:35! He came in 20th over all there were over 600 runners. He took 1st in the 10 and under age group.