A few weeks ago we were visiting our friends, and they mentioned they were training for the half. Jayze has already run two marathons but had kind of a fallout with running since moving to Kansas. Our friends told him he should run the half with them, and signing up for it ended up being the perfect motivation to consistently run again. It was his first official half marathon, and I think the running bug is still going strong.
On Friday Jayze took half a day off work, and we drove the three hours up to KC where we met our friends at the expo. I think the main part of the expo was the day before, so the aftermath of that was a tad bit disappointing, but we were still glad we went.
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| The runner |
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| The supporters |
The runners (Dustin, Lindsey, and Jayze) made sure to stock up on carbs the night before. I enjoyed stocking up on the carbs too, even though I wasn't running. Even though he was tired, Aidan didn't end up falling asleep until about 11:00. He didn't want me to leave, so I ended up laying next to him on the floor, dozing off and on until he finally closed his eyes and I could hear his soft snore.
I got up with Jayze early the next morning and got myself ready while he drove off to the starting line with Lindsey and Dustin. I was nervous about taking charge of the kids by myself, but I said a quick, sincere prayer, and things went as smoothly as I could have hoped. I ended up having to wake them up to go, and from there on out they didn't sleep the rest of the day (they were troopers!).
I followed Lindsey's family to downtown where we parked and then walked to the finish line. Luckily we made it there in plenty of time to watch for D, L, and J to cross the finish line.
While we were waiting for them to cross, I made friends with two women standing right by us because Kimball kept climbing onto one of their camping chairs and playing with one of their cowbells. Of course when Aidan saw Kimball playing with the cow bell, he wanted to as well.
It was a good thing I made friends with them because when I was distracted for a minute handing my tic-tacs to my friend's son to help distract him, Kimball ran off. I turned around, looked down, and didn't see Kimball in front of me anymore. I spun around to see if he was behind me, and then looked left and right, but he was gone. I couldn't see him anywhere.
Just when Lindsey's mom and I were about to full-blown panic, one of the women I had made friends with came running up with Kimball in her arms. As she handed him to me, she said, "I saw him running this way, so I took off after him."
Oh.my.gosh. I can't believe I almost lost my child. I am always diligent about watching my kids in public places to the point where I feel like a helicopter parent all the time, and the one time I look away, Bam! He's gone. I am so, so, so, so, so thankful for that kind woman. Kimball was strapped in the stroller for the rest of the time. Thankfully he still liked that cow bell.
A few minutes later, one by one Lindsey, Jayze, and Dustin finished their 13.1 mile run. Jayze was seriously on cloud 9 the rest of the time. When I walked up to him after the race with the kids in the stroller, he had the biggest grin you ever did see. It was the best.
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| Aidan and Kimball wouldn't look at the camera. They just wanted to look at Daddy. |
The rest of the day was relaxing, which is just how it should be after a big run like that. The kids played all day long with toys and books and watched a couple of movies. We played games with Dustin and Lindsey and Lindsey's family. Jayze and I made a quick Walmart run sans kids. And it was even more relaxing when we decided to stay an extra night because of a rainstorm (you don't mess with Kansas rainstorms - they are a pain to drive through).
The next morning we woke up early so that we could make our 9:00 a.m. church. After church, we all crashed. I still could barely move when Kimball woke me up a couple hours later. We had cereal and smoothies for dinner and then went for a walk around our neighborhood to shake the cobwebs out of our muscles. Needless to say, I think we all slept well that night.
All in all, it was a good weekend and I can't wait for Jayze or me to sign up for another event. There's just so much energy and camaraderie among all the runners who have trained for weeks for this specific event, and it's intoxicating to be around. I loved it, and I'm glad we got to go.
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