St. George Marathon Weekend

I always think that once school starts, I am going to have all of this extra time to finally get caught up on everything that’s on my to-do list . . . painting all of my grandma’s old furniture (so Gavin’s car can finally fit in the garage again),  start and finish digital scrapbooks before Christmas Eve, get caught up on the blog, organize the house, etc.  But it never works out that way.  I’m not sure why but instead of more free time, I end up having even less time.  Can’t believe the kids have been in school for more than a month already and that Halloween is just around the corner.  We’ve been busy with lots of good things and hopefully I will get to catching up on the blog one day soon.  But for now. . .

We spent the weekend in St. George at Nan and Papa’s house.  Gavin trained all summer, waking up bright and early, to run and train for his 7th marathon.  His goal was to finish in less than 4 hours.  Once again, Ryan stayed behind at his friend’s house so he could play in his big football game on Saturday.  They had their first loss of the season but Ryan did have an interception.

We took Zeus on his first road trip.  He rode in his kennel in the back of the car and did great.  Hadley and Nan took the dogs out for a walk on our first morning there.

We spent the first day swimming at Uncle Brendan’s and Aunt Nicole’s cold pool.  Griffin and Kamen were inseparable and had so much fun together.

We went to Pizza Factory the night before the race for some good pre-race Carb loading.

And then Gavin took off with Uncle Richie to sleep in the cabin in Pine Valley

Hadley and Jack had fun making posters the night before the race.  Nan asked Jack what the teenagers say these days when something is cool.   His response?  “Coo”

“You so ‘coo’ aliens would abduct you."

We found a good spot around mile 25-26 to watch and cheer on all of the runners.  It is an emotional experience to watch the runners as they approach the finish line.  Lolly and I both got a little teary-eyed, especially as we watched one man finish the wheelchair division using only one hand to push his wheelchair to the finish line.  And I always get emotional when I finally find Gavin in the crowd and see him so close to the finish line.  Proud of his hard work, determination, endurance and example.  

He made his goal of finishing under 4 hours.  Barely.  3:59!!!  Way to go, Gavin!

His biggest fans!

Gavin and his parents

Gavin with his brother, Brendan, Nicole and Baby Shae

I think this was the only time that Gavin got to rest all day.  A few minutes on the grass with some ice on his knees.  And then he was back to full-time dad status.  

We were spoiled all weekend with Nan’s yummy cooking . . . waffles and sourdough hotcakes, chocolate sheet cake, chocolate chip cookies, pot roast dinner, and lots of yummy snacks.  It was hard to leave all of that goodness.  And the kids even slept this time around.  Except for those early morning wakings when Morgan woke up hours before everyone else to let Zeus out of his kennel and kindly put him into her grandparents’ bedroom.  Barking and all.

And if you’re wondering why anyone would ever want to run a marathon.  Watch this.  It even made me wish I had joints that could handle a marathon.  Very inspiring!