Monday, October 8, 2007

Marathon Man!!

Sunday was a big day around here! Bryan and Koo ran in their first marathon - and they finished!!! The twin Cities Marathon started at 8:00 Sunday morning and the temperature here broke all of the previous records. It hit 87 degrees with about 210% humidity. There were 10,500 people signed up for the marathon and another 5,000 running a 10K race.

Here we are at 7 am in downtown Minneapolis. Koo was so nervous that she left to go pee about 4 times before the start! It is already 72 degrees.

Bryan, some guy Koo works with, Koo and her friend Tara - 15 minutes to start.

And . . . . they're off!
The kids and I watched the start then jumped in the car to go to Lake Nokomis where we watched both Koo and Bryan run by. Every spot of the 26 mile course had spectators cheering on the runners! After Nokomis, we dove to Minnehaha Parkway where we watched for about 20 minutes before realizing we had missed both of them! We tried to go to Lake Calhoun, but the traffic was terrible and we could not make it there. So, we stopped again on Summit Avenue where we just missed Koo but did see Bryan pass by and from there we drove to the finish area to watch Bryan cross the finish line!

Here are the kids cheering on the runners.

Their enthusiasm quickly waned because of the amount of waiting and running back to the car we did. They were tired from getting up so early and it was HOT!

Here is an example of their energy level minutes later.


Wait, here comes Bryan!


Here he comes again at another location.

Here is Koo looking for a goo electrolyte thingy I was supposed to have ready for her. Oops. No matter, we gave her one later on and she said it tasted like trying to eat runny snot. Yuck.


Hours later . . . . Bryan comes into view of the finish line!


He breaks into a sprint for the last few paces!!


Here he is crossing the finish line! They called out his name as he crossed.


Post marathon on the lawn of the state capital.


By this time, Calvin had given up. I'm sure he was really excited for his dad, but the exhaustion just caught up to him!

We are so proud of both of them! I have no desire to ever run a marathon but I would like to go and see another marathon. Maybe we'll see you next year!

Final chip (they had a champion chip on their shoes to record their times) times: Bryan 5 hours 26 minutes and 16 seconds. Koo: 4 hours 57 minutes and 57 seconds

number of finishers:7215
number of females:2825
number of males:4390
average time:04:48:03

Todays update: Koo and Bryan are seriously sore.

6 comments:

  1. What a fun event this was!

    My legs are sore now, but not as bad as after a 10-mile run a month ago. Next time I will be ready to get Ukrainian on this race.

    These pictures from the race turned out great. It was so great to suddenly see my children and my sweetheart among the crowd, cheering me on!

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  2. very impressive! congrats to both koo and bryan!

    i'm so sorry that the weather was that horrid (we've been having warm weather here and i'm just sick of it!) millions upon gazillions of extra bonus points from me for running in that heat!!

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  3. That picture of me with my hand out...horrid! The race was a lot of fun until mile 20. From mile 20-26.2 it was not fun. It hurt. I'm glad I did it, but my body is not. I may need a double knee transplant!

    Thanks for coming out and cheering us on!

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  4. Wow! Great job Bryan!
    I don't envy all the running & the heat, but I'm glad you enjoyed it!

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  5. Also, Calvin is hilarious in just about every picture, lying face down flat on the pavement and fast asleep in his stroller with the sign, so cute!

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  6. Congrats, Bryan and Koo! I can't believe how HOT it was -- and I'm glad I didn't see you guys that day :) Congrats again!

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