Ogden Marathon 2010

Mike has been training for his first marathon for months now. Well, I feel like I have been training right along with him by sacrificing my sanity because of all the time it takes to train. Today, he finally accomplished his goal.

The full and half marathons each started at 7 am. The kids and I arrived around 8 am because I had a ton of family members running the half that I wanted to make sure I saw cross the finish line in around 2 hours. Mike was hoping to finish the marathon in around 3 hours 45 minutes. I should have known hanging around watching people cross a finish line for over 2 hours wouldn't be fun for 3 young boys. What a nightmare it was bringing them along!

Here's Todd and Erin making their way towards the finish line. Erin said Todd wouldn't wait for her at all. She was always a few steps behind him.

Their half marathon time was around 2:09:10. I never would have thought Todd would have accomplished this, but he did. Way to go!

The finish line to meet the runners was very poorly set up. It was extremely difficult for me to drag 3 kids over to meet up with anyone. Then, we had to make our way back to the bleachers to watch out for Mike. We did pick up a few souvenirs along the way.

Landen somehow scored a princess crown. By this point, I didn't care as long as it kept him entertained for a few minutes.

Tanner and Gage got a few Toy Story booklets that kept them busy for like 5 minutes.

Gage did a lot of complaining. I guess I should have realized that a 7 year old wouldn't understand how big of an accomplishment running 26 miles really is.

As I mentioned, Mike was hoping to run this marathon in around 3 hours 45 minutes. His longest training run was around 22 miles so it is hard to know what your final time will be. Well, the organizers of the marathon were trialing a new concept this year where you could be texted when your runner was at the 5k mark. I signed up for this awesome feature because then I would know when Mike had roughly 20 to 25 minutes left, and I could be camera ready. I apparently relied too heavily on this new, untested idea.

I had a friend following her husband and Mike along the entire course at certain checkpoints and she would text me when she saw Mike. The entire time she said he looked good and was chatting it up with other runners and smiling. Well at mile 20 she said he wasn't chatting or smiling anymore. As the time passed 3 hours and 20 minutes I realized I hadn't received the text stating Mike had only 3 miles to go. I started to feel bad that he wasn't going to reach his goal of 3 hours and 45 minutes. I wondered what could have happened. Was he hurt? Was something wrong?

All of a sudden, I saw a guy looking like Mike. I couldn't believe it. The time was around 3 hours 25 minutes. I looked at my phone thinking I had missed the text from the organizers but they had never texted me! My fingers couldn't turn on my camera fast enough and I was shouting at the kids to look at their Dad racing towards the finish line. I couldn't believe it. Mike's time was better than he had ever expected coming in at 3:26:09.

My camera isn't the best and is so slow to reset, but you can see Mike in a gold tank top.

Unfortunately, Mike's parents were out of town and none of his brothers were able to make it. He of course had to get on the phone right away and tell everyone how he did.

We are so proud of Mike. He did great!

Is there another marathon in Mike's future? Mike isn't saying as of today, but I am sure there will be.