Mommy Does Marathons: We Did It!!!

*Here is the post about the Grand Rapids Marathon that I put on my family blog!!!!!!

Over the weekend, my dad and I ran the Grand Rapids Marathon!

That's right...the ole man and I did 26.2 miles together!!! (As my favorite sign said, "Because 26.3 would be CRAZY!)

It was a great weekend all together. We arrived in Grand Rapids on Saturday afternoon. The kids (and Rob and Aunt Katie) napped while while we hit the expo. Then, we all headed to the local "establishment" to start our carb loading with some pumpkin ale! :) After that, it was off for pasta for more carb loading. And we ended the night with the highlight for the kids....HOTEL SWIMMING POOL!

I should mention that it was cold and SO WINDY on Saturday, so we weren't sure what to expect for the race.

My dad and I headed out early Saturday morning for the start of the race...in the cold and rain. But there was no wind so we felt hopeful. An hour or so later, by the start of the race, the rain had stopped and we got the absolute perfect weather for a race...cool, no sun, no rain, no wind. It was great!

My dad and I had a great race. I have to say, my dad is an AMAZING runner. From about mile 16-mile 22, I contemplated stopping many, many, many times! But he kept me going!!! I am proud to say we never stopped once to walk except through water stops!!!

The Grand Rapids Marathon is great. There are so many fun runners who do this race. Some of the highlights were:

-Our shirts!!! My dad surprised me with shirts for the race. My dad's said WINK and mine said SMILE because the song we danced to for my wedding was "We go together like a Wink and a Smile". I LOVED IT!!!!!!!

-Pickle Juice around mile 16 and 20 (sounded gross but it was refreshing and awesome)

-Wedding at Mile 16

-My Team Triumps (runners who are pushing wheel chairs, it was amazing and I was inspired...more to come on that soon)

-Reading fun signs (Marathon runners run 26.2 because 26.3 miles would be CRAZY).

-Port-a-potty madness....let's just say we almost missed the start of the race.

-Ray, our running buddy!

This is my 7th marathon, and somewhere in the 40s for my Dad I think, but I can say this was a highlight for me. I would say very, very, very few people are ever able to do something like run a marathon with their dad..and I'll always cherish it!

I should mention, we didn't do too shabby either. We finished at 3:43:27, which is about 8:30mins/mile average. My dad finished 6th in his age division and in the top 297 of the 894 men who ran. I finished 15th in my age division and in the top 78 out of 712 women. My dad also qualified for Boston...again!