WE DID IT!!

Today (being Sunday during my pre-post blogging marathon), Matt and I participated in the OKC Memorial Marathon for the first time. We started the day by waking up at 4:50 am only to find out that it was supposed to be raining, hailing, tornado-ing, lighting, and thundering during the race today. But luckily, none of those things happened.

Here is the gang before we headed up to the start line.

As if getting up early wasn't enough, there was some crazy man in charge of hyping everyone up for the race that was super annoying. We were standing about1 foot from the speaker so the annoyance was magnified by about 100% and then he kept using the phrase, "ooooooooooo yeaaaaaaaaaaahhh" in a creepy voice all day long. That was not the highlight of the day! The picture above is the start line.


Here is Derek at his half-marathon half way point which was also the first exchange in the relay. This is where Matt picked up and ran the second leg for our team.


Aaaaand hes off! (On a side note, I was trying to not have to use the sick port-a-potties that day but had to give in and go TWICE. But at least I was able to squat, hold my breath, and not touch anything whilst I was in the germ pit).

Matt ran the first 5K with the time chip and then he ran the second 5k (4th leg) with me which was the one I ran with the time chip. Here we are after my leg with are medals of honor for completing the race. The leg I ran was harder than I was expecting because I had to run into the wind which was gusting like crazy, uphill over the highway and into a snow storm (just kidding about that last part) but I survived. However, I did run a lot slower than normal because of that though. And I got somewhat embarrased because after we had run a mile into my leg, I said really loudly "It's only been 1 mile!!!" because it honestly felt like it had been 2 already and all these people who had just finished their 18th mile were busting up laughing at me! Oh well, I guess I brightened their day and made them feel better about themselves.

Here is Josh waiting across the other side of the finish. He ran the 3rd leg but I didnt get a picture of him finishing because it was my turn to run next.

We got to see Leo finish his first marathon. Good job Leo! I dont think I could ever run a whole marathon. Thats just crazy.

And last but not least, John, the fifth member of our team, finishes!

I am so glad that we did the race and plan to run some more later this year. It helps me to have a goal to work towards to keep motivating myself to run when otherwise I might just stay home and do something else. Good job everyone and congrats to everyone who ran farther and harder than I did! I had a funny picture to post of this kid at the end of the marathon laying and sleeping on the gound but I cant get it to work right. Oh well...