THE MARATHON......WAHOO!!!

"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you
become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall
one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you
shall at last unveil."--James Allen


What's up friends and family? This is Ben writing. We just got back from Beck's race today and it was a success! She did very well and we had an excellent and fun time. I'm going to tell you all a bit about it.


We rolled up to the event and there were probably 350 people (racers and spectators) waiting around for the race to begin. Becky had been a little nervous the previous two days but not this day: she had her game face on and was ready to rock. It was a very climactic moment for me because I've seen how dedicated and determined she's been to stomp this marathon and now it was time to roll. I'm very proud of her. The gun went off and as they started I noticed that the first part of the race was a monster hill that you would only want to run up if you were a maniac. I thought,"Oh, no big deal, all of these runners are maniacs. They'll be fine."

Two hours and 20 minutes later the kids and I drove out on the course (the road was not closed to drivers and the whole day there was a lot of traffic on the road, which I thought was not smart of whoever organized the event) and found Becky. She was at the 15 mile mark. It was very emotional for me to see her during her race. I pulled up next to her as she was running. She said,"This course is a beast. It's all uphill!!!" This course was re-routed from previous years because it was so hard and there was no data concerning it's nature. (found out later that it was only more difficult than in years past) I guess we all thought it'd be mostly flat with a little up and down like most marathons. After seeing her and whooping and hollering in her behalf, the kids and I volunteered for a little while by directing runners. You can see Mary in one of the pictures pointing in the direction that they needed to go. Apparently, some of the runners were going the wrong way. So good job Mary.

After doing this I drove the course and began seeing exactly what Beck was talking about. There were lots of hills. Just as an example, miles 16-20 were one big hill, the last part of which was very steep. I'm not joking. I began seeing people dropping out. I talked to some of them and they were saying that it was a ridiculous course. Many people were mad about it, actually. For a typical marathon, the winner will finish in about 2.5 hours, sometimes even faster. The winner of this race finished in three hours. That was a testament to it's difficulty. (2 miles downhill is difficult for me) To make a long story short, Becky did very well. She finished fourth in her age group (20-30 years old). She ran the last half of it with a gentlemen named Phil. This was Phil's 26th marathon and he had never not qualified for the Boston Marathon (3.5 hours for his age group). Becky finished with him. Even though they didn't qualify for Boston (this was not Beck's goal) they finished in great time considering how hard of a course it was. I'm proud of Becky for finishing the marathon. It was very emotional watching her struggle through the last stretch of the course passing through the finish line as fast as she could, knowing she had just done something so hard. Something she had worked so hard to do. I'm very proud of her for simply being happy with her results. There's nothing like preparing and training for something, doing it, and just accepting and being happy with what you brought to the table. Good job Becky! You are an inspiration to all of us!



STARTING LINE




AROUND MILE 15....headed uphill for the next 5 miles that ended with a mile and 1/2 so steep that people were walking up it backwards



MARY LEADS THE WAY




3 MILES TO GO...Phil was running next to Becky, but he held back for the picture