E & D & Y & E & I: TCM

October 7 (Theme song for this post: Marathon Runner by Yellow Ostrich.)

Last April, Devin's cousin, Kelli, ran the Boston Marathon and we were there to cheer her on. Watching her inspired us to get back into running - something we weren't doing with much regularity. To motivate ourselves, we registered for the Twin Cities Marathon; a race we'd always wanted to run. Jill, decided she would register too! And Adam! And Kelli! And Christian! And our cousin Brian! (It would be the first for Jill, Christian, and Brian!)

With a nurses' schedule and Devin kicking off the most challenging year of his grad school program, we weren't the best examples of runners-in-training. But I was excited to finish Jill's first marathon with her, so I made running fit.

As as side note: Not only were we going to run that weekend, but we also planned a surprise 60th birthday party for Mom the Friday before the race. The party was wonderful! Mom's friends are such great people, and our family kicks ass! (I have zero pictures from Mom's party, so a post may have to wait until I can collect some.)

Minneapolis, Minnesota

At the Expo on Saturday night, picking up our race packets.

I told these guys to "look awesome" and this is what I got.

Before leaving the hotel room in the AM.

Sunday morning: me, Brian Weitz, Jill, Adam Iten, Devin

(Jill's bib was red because she was going to win.)

The race started downtown Minneapolis at the Metrodome.

A chilly morning, but good running weather once we got started.

In corral 3 - working toward the START

That's it for my pictures until the end of the marathon, but here are some of Mom's:

Isaac, cheering on the runners!

Devin and Adam hadn't trained to run the full marathon, so they ran to Laura and Adam's house - a few blocks from the course at 14.5 miles.

It worked out well for them!

Adam and Isaac

Jill and I are in there...

There we are! (Mile 14.5)

Around Mile 23. Do I look like I was hurting a little? I was. Jill, on the other hand...!

I was lagging a bit behind Jill and I had a plan that if she turned to look at me I'd just yell for her to GO! But, she never looked back so I figured I'd better catch up!

Marathoners! We crossed the finish line together at 4:18:16!

So happy to be done!

This is how we felt on the inside. It took us roughly 5 minutes to get up from this spot to go find our family! (Not that we sat for 5 mins and got up, but the act of trying to stand took 5 mins!)