41.7

If you’ll remember back to January a year ago; our family began our long distance racing careers, if you will, by running in the inaugural Louisiana Marathon.

Much has transpired in our running agendas throughout 2012; we upped the stakes last summer by taking on the multi-sport challenge of triathlons and Daddy Buck has increased even more to include a The Full Marathon at this year’s event.  More on that in a bit…..

The people behind the scenes of The Louisiana Marathon sure know how to put on a premiere running event.  Last year being the inaugural year, I said fabulous things about this event and two weeks out from this year’s race; I have even greater things to say.  This is a first-class racing event that is putting Louisiana on the map in terms of long distance racing/running!  The layout of the event is a 5K and kids’ run on Saturday morning and the half and full marathons on Sunday morning. 

So, for our family that means……kids first!

The boys have anticipated this weekend for weeks now and the morning had finally arrived.  They even had a surprise fan as my Dad was in town for the race. 

I ran the race with them.  Daddy Buck typically does, but was dressed for work after their race. 

As we lined up in the corral, Buck-a-roo and the boys’ friend, J, were teasing Frank-o that they would beat him in the race.  He got quite upset and let’s just say that sparked a fierceness in him that was unstoppable. 

At the fire of the gun, he took off in a full-on sprint.  So much so that I had to cut the course by about a 1/4 mile just to catch him to run him in the back half.  He never has this competitiveness about running during training so it was a welcomed sight to Daddy Buck and I. 

He, bib #5026, sped through the 1.2 mile course in 11:52 and couldn’t have been happier because he did indeed beat his older brother.  Competitiveness isn’t our weakness here in this family.  

About a minute later, Buck-a-roo surfaced…….    

He, bib #5025, hustled through the 1.2 mile course 12:33.  He was actually happy for his little brother’s performance!

That completed our festivities for Saturday and it was time to focus on hydration and fuel for Daddy Buck and I’s races on Sunday morning. 

I was to run The Half Marathon.  Two weeks prior to the race, I had my IT band injected with some steroids for a hopeful quick fix for the IT band friction syndrome that I had been battling for about 6 weeks.  In the week leading up to the race, I was sidelined with bronchitis.  Needless to say, this was going to be a tough event for me and I well knew that going in to Sunday morning. 

     

I, bib #1490, shuffled through the 13.1 mile course and finished in 3:01:23.  Half marathon number three is now in the books!

And then the fun, or rather, nerves began for me!  You see this is the first race that Daddy Buck and I haven’t run the same distance.  Whereas he typically crosses the finish line well ahead of me and then awaits my arrival and runs me in to the finish line for the last quarter mile; it was now my turn.

I knew he had a goal time of four hours, so after catching my breath {and emotions} and refilling on some hydration; I had roughly 50 minutes to wait for Daddy Buck to appear from behind the tall buildings on the streets of downtown Baton Rouge. 

I was elated when I saw him round the corner to meet me at mile marker 26.  It was now my turn to run him in to the final turn to the finish chute. 

A thumbs up to the boys and he, bib #62, finished stong in his first full marathon in 3:52:31.  Well under his goal time and feeling good to boot!

It’s fantastic when you near the finish line of a racing event, to hear your friends and family cheering for your finish and to then reunite with them after you exit the chute……it’s a great feeling for us.  We’re not winning any races by any means.  We’re just out here competing with ourselves, attempting to live healthy lives and instill the values of exercise, dedication, determination, and competition in our children.  To them, our friends and family, we’re winning!

Daddy Buck’s mom is at the finish line of most every race that we do.  You might could say, she’s even the inspiration behind our running seeing as she has completed four full marathons herself. 

Hands raised if you think they resemble one another :-) {hand raised}

This is my godchild.  She and her family were here a year ago to see us in our first long distance endeavors and they were here again for us this year.  Such special friends!  She’s also my fabulous race photographer for all of Sunday’s pictures in this post!

    

There you have it…… this year’s recap of our family’s 41.7 miles at The Louisiana Marathon!