Well, he did it! After months and months of getting up before the sun to train, John finished the Detroit marathon along with Jose! It was a gorgeous day in Detroit, and we had a lot of fun watching and being in the race atmosphere. My dad came with Sarah, Alex and I down to Detroit early on Sunday to cheer the guys on. We made it just in time to see them take off on their 26.2 mile journey! Of course, we didn’t get a picture of this because Sarah’s camera had no SD card and my camera had no battery (insert shocked face here). We quickly remedied the situation by switching Sarah’s battery to my camera and snapped some pictures of the starting line. It was the best we could do with the circumstance =]
Then, off we went in search of coffee because, frankly, 7:00 was way to early to be up and moving around on a Sunday morning. Marathons are tough work for spectators. We found said coffee, and started our trek to mile 9.5 where the guys came back to America through the Detroit-Winsdor tunnel. We almost missed them, but both guys were looking great at that point! We then hurried on over to mile 13 where we missed Jose but caught John just in time (we were making a habit of arriving in the knick of time). We knew we wouldn’t be able to see them again until the finish, so we took a break and got some breakfast on Woodward. After our quick re-fuel, we were off to the finish line to meet up with John’s parents who came up from Ohio to see him finish!
Waiting at the finish line felt like an eternity! It was probably the most stressed I have been in a long time (I can’t imagine how John and Jose were feeling). John came in at 5:04 after suffering from leg cramps starting around mile 12. He powered through the last 14.2 miles even though he was stuck run/walking the whole time. Jose came in at 4:05. We are very proud of their accomplishment! He and Jose are already looking forward to marathon #2 in Cincinnati, where I will also be running the 26.2!
 |
| Pre-marathon rest Ready to go! Starting line! |
 |
| Mile 9.5 Mile 13 |
 |
| They did it!!! |
 |
| It was rough for spectators, too! |
After the marathon, we spent the week in Michigan. It was so nice to be able to spend some time with Sarah, Jose, my mom and my dad. Alex got some quality time in with everybody =] On Thursday, we headed over to Rockford to have dinner with Katie and Sean. It was great to be able to see them, even though it was a brief visit. It is always wonderful catching up =] While we were in Rockford, I went and got my hair dyed dark for the first time in my life. I was getting pretty tired of maintaining the blonde highlights so I decided to go back to my natural color, which I was shocked to find out is actually brown now! I am loving it and I think I will stick with it for a little while =]
Next stop on our journey was Mackinac Island! It was Alex’s first time to the island (apart from being in my belly last year). We stayed at The Murray Hotel on Main St and of all the places we have stayed on Mackinac, this was the most accommodating. Five minutes post room arrival (we were showed to our room BTW), there was a knock on our door! Upgraded to a king suite, BOOM! Thanks to our giant stroller for making that happen. I’m pretty sure they moved us to their nicest room. We had a great weekend on the island overall. We hiked, we walked, we shopped, we ate and I ran 5.7 miles and got a sweet medal. Success. Oh, and don’t forget the fudge. Yum!
It felt great to get home after 10 days away. My mom was nice enough to come down for part of the week while John traveled to Pittsburgh. Alex spent his first Halloween dressed as Dobby the House Elf from Harry Potter and helped mommy and grandma pass out candy.
