Saturday was the Illinois Marathon here in our city of Champaign-Urbana. Joel has been training for this race, his first marathon, for a LONG time. We were all pretty excited when the day finally arrived!
The girls and I made some signs and walked a few blocks to the park near our house where we could cheer for Joel and the other runners.
He passed us at mile 14, so it was just a little bit past the half way point for him. He looked great and said he was feeling good too.
After that we headed to Memorial Stadium on the University of Illinois campus to see Joel cross the finish line. We had to sit kind of far away, but once he entered the stadium we knew it was him.
Way to go, Joel! We are so proud of you!
We took our newly medaled marathoner home to rest for a little while, then returned to the stadium for the Youth Run. Anna decided a few weeks ago that she wanted to run, so we got her all signed up and she began "training." So when Joel would return from his afternoon runs, she would run around the block with him. He was planning to runs with her, but didn't know if he would feel up to it. So I was recruited as the back-up running partner. The distance for the Youth Run was 1K, which didn't sound too scary, but I don't run AT ALL. So I was secretly hoping that Joel would feel good and want to get out there and move his sore muscles.
As you can see from this picture, I was issued my very own race number because Norah decided at the last minute that she really wanted to run. As we were sitting in the stadium waiting for Joel to finish, the announcers were talking about the Youth Run and that you could still sign up. As soon as they mentioned that Noodles and Co. mac and cheese would be served to all the participants, Norah was in. She didn't really care about the medal. Just the mac and cheese!
So Joel ran with Anna, and I got to run with Norah. The older kids went first, so Joel and Anna were waiting for us as we crossed the finish line. Norah ran the whole distance. I kept asking her if she wanted to slow down and walk for a bit, and she would say, "No Mom! I'm thirsty!" So she kept running. And I surprised myself by keeping up with her. We saw lots of friends running, which was fun. And one of Norah's preschool teachers was cheering for us right as we entered the stadium. It was such a fun way to get the whole family involved in the day, even us non-runners!
3 comments:
yeah Newtons! very fun. i am super impressed that Joel got out and ran again with Anna. i would be in the fetal position for weeks if i ran a marathon.
Congratulations to all the Newton runners! What an accomplishment for all of you!
Who would have thought mac and cheese would be an incentive to run!??? :)
Way to go! I love that the entire family was so involved!
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