On Friday evening, Chris and I enjoyed a very nice dinner at a place called Charlstons, and even popped open a bottle of bubbly to celebrate Chris' long marathon training and my birthday. Then my birthday was on Saturday, and Chris did such a good job of making it special for me! We spent some good time together at the Oklahoma City Botanical Garden, which was a cute little place. We enjoyed walking through the three levels and seeing all the beauty together. Here is Chris by a waterfall...
And me by some sort of cactus...
One of the beauties we witnessed...
My new smaller camera makes it much easier for us to get self-portraits together...I loved this one...
From there, we spent a little bit walking around the Art Festival that was happening downtown...everything was pretty pricey, and then it started to pour down rain. So our looking was cut short.
We had dinner at Chili's with our friends who were also in town for the marathon, and that was a great time. They are a fun bunch!
Chris decided to give me one of my gifts on my actual birthday...(we are doing my "official" birthday dinner with Mimi and Aspen this coming Thursday)...I was very excited to see a "little blue box" sitting on the bed!! I am acquiring quite a collection of little blue boxes! :) Inside was a gorgeous Elsa Peretti cross necklace from Tiffany. It is so cute and so me...not your average cross, but a little funky!
Chris always makes my special day just that...special. He is so dang good to me, I can't believe how blessed I am.
Now, the Oklahoma City Marathon was on Sunday...first off though, we stopped at the Expo on Saturday to pick up their racing packets. Here is the gang of runners...our friend Misty, who ran her second full marathon; our friend Ana, who ran the half marathon; her husband Rolando, who ran his 11th marathon, and Chris, who ran his 10th marathon.
Me and my hubby...so proud of him!! He is so dedicated to his training, it always is an inspiration.
Race day came early...we were up at 4:00 a.m. and the race began at 6:30 a.m. Here is Chris pre-starting line...he was feeling very good, and had good feelings about being able to break his 3:00 goal...
Here is Rolando (yellow) and Chris (green) between mile 5 and 6...they were looking pretty good!! I got a thumbs up from Chris, his signal to me that all was going well.
Here they are between mile 12...still looking fairly good, though Chris said, "It's going to be a long day" to me as he passed. Not a good sign. My mind instantly starting worrying.
Next I went to mile 18...and was disheartened to see Rolando coming through on his own. Definitely not a good sign. A few minutes later, Chris came through and asked me to walk with him for a minute. I was shocked. I fell into step with him and he explained that he was having severe stomach cramping. He felt like he was too skinny and that he didn't have any reserves for his body to use. He said if it didn't get better, he would have to stop at the Medic tent...something he has never done. I assured him that I loved him and off he went...my heart went out to him, because he had trained so many miles and so many hours in hopes of breaking this goal, and it was crumbling before his eyes. He said the wind was horrible too and had wiped them out on the first half...the second half was with the wind to their back, but by then they were already spent. He also said that there were way more hills on the course than he remembered. All that adds up to a race that wasn't going to break any records. You can see how rough he's going below...
From 18, I went returned to the downtown area and found a spot on the finishing stretch. I still had hopes that maybe Rolando would be able to break the 3:00 goal. It would be good if at least one of them could. However, 9:30 came and went and there was no sign of him. I just wanted to cry for them both. I felt so solemn standing there against the barrier, stretching my eyes down the stretch hoping to see their green and yellow coming my way. I had a bit of a wait.
Finally I saw them, and they were coming in together. That was a happy sight. Rolando had run out of steam and Chris had felt a little better, so they were able to meet back up on the course. Since they weren't going to break their goal, they decided to just run it in together from there. You'll see below that Chris gave me a "sarcastic" thumbs up...
They crossed the line around 3:29, obviously much slower than either had hoped. They were both pretty disappointed, but they didn't let it ruin their days...here is the picture of disappointment...
Ah, my hubby. I love him so. I felt so badly for him. All that training, and he was so capable of doing it. Just not on that hilly course, with that awful wind, and stomach cramps to boot. Does he have another attempt left in him? Number 11? Guess time will tell.
Rolando was a good sport in letting me document their exhaustion :) He didn't really have much choice, of course! And here are all four runners, after the race. Ana did really great, she had a goal of 1:40 for her half marathon, and came in at 1:42. So close!!!! Misty also had a great race, running a little over 4 hours. They are definitely an inspiring group.
So, there you have it!!
1 comment:
From a non runners perspective I am awed by the fact he has done not one, but ten! Amazing and inspirational for sure. He might not have beaten a record, but he finished in pain and didn't give up...that is awesome!
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