A Whole New Experience.....

Ok, I know I always say this but we have been BUSY!! I have a lot of catching up to do. We need to begin with Chuck running the Columbus Marathon on 10/17/2010!!! I can't believe he took this on but he did and he finished all 26.2 miles of it and he did amazing!!! I originally thought when he told me that Kevin wanted him to do the Columbus Marathon with him that he was completely crazy, I am all for running half marathons but half marathons aren't nearly the time commitment that a full marathon is, I realize that many busy people run marathons, but Chuck is BUSY and 26.2 miles is REALLY REALLY far!! Between traveling for work, spending time with Hannah and I and coaching hockey, finding the time to put the training in that you need to do to complete a marathon was nearly impossible.

We headed over to Columbus on Saturday morning. We went to a beautiful park, met Aunt Cathy, and Hannah participated in the Diaper Dash. This was hilarious and I think she enjoyed herself. After the diaper dash we met up with Kevin and Kayt and headed over to the expo to pick up bib numbers, shirts and to check out all the fun booths!

The awesome thing about this marathon was that since it was in Columbus, Ohio we had lots of friends and family already in the area, plus since it was a pretty convenient location we had lots of friends running!!! Saturday, early evening a big group of us met up for a pre-race meal at Bucca, we did some catching up, then all headed home for an early bed time!

Sunday morning was early!! We were very nervous about having to wake Hannah up at 5:45 but I think she knew it was a big day for Daddy and popped right up ready to go. We piled into the car and headed downtown! We hit very little traffic heading down there and parking was easy, unfortunately the starting area was a bit of a cluster. Chuck wasn't able to meet up with anyone he knew and had the hardest time even getting into his corral to actually start the race. Hannah and I gave Chuck a kiss, wished him luck and lost him in the crowd.

Like I said, we knew a lot of people running this, which also meant we had lots of spectator friends!! I told Chuck that Aunt Cathy, Steph, Hannah and I would be at miles 9, 12, 19 and the finish. Kayt, her friends and family were at miles 5.5, 10, 15, 20 and the finish. My Uncle who is completely crazy got up at 4:30 in the morning to drive back from Canada to see Chuck finish, so he was at mile 23 and the finish, so needless to say the boys had a lot of support!! It was an amazing day and we are so proud of Chuck for doing it!

I don't have very many pictures from the race, I was more worried about not missing Chuck running by and then getting him the things he needed, but here are a few!