As most of you know, my husband has been training for the Big Sur Marathon for over two months now. And this week end all of his hard work finally paid off! For me, the whole concept of a marathon was foreign territory. I had no idea what to expect, and this being his first marathon, he really didn't know either.. Dave's training included running, weight training and dieting. Weekends leading up to the race were especially hard because Dave would use those days to complete his long training runs which were anywhere from 15-20 miles long. So, needless to say, he was VERY excited for the weekend of the actual race to get here. yesterday we went to Monterey and picked up his race packet which included several phamplets, his chip timer ( this is something that you stick on your shoe that times you as you cross the finish line) his bib number, and this nice red shirt.
Look at the goofy grin! So, early this morning (sunday) we got up at 3:00 am to take Dave and his friend to meet the busses in Monterey. Since the race starts in Big Sur, they bus all of the participants there. Here is a picture of Dave all ready to go this morning.
3960.. a lucky number =) After I dropped him off I went back home and slept for a while. But Dave hopped on the bus and rode out to Big Sur. The race didn't actually start until 6:45, but there were like 5000 participants, so it took a while to get organized. The weather was really foggy and cold today, but Dave said that made it nice because he didn't really get too hot or too cold. He also said that the first 15 miles went by really easy and he wasn't hurting at all. Dave ran up until the last 3 miles when he started walking because of the pain in his legs. But as he saw the finish line he sprinted to the finish line and ended with an AWESOME time of 3:49. He was shooting for 4:10, so he did a lot better than he though he would.
This is just a shot of what the finish line looked like. Unfortunatly I didn't catch Dave crossing the line. I have NO idea how I missed him because I was standing right by the finish line, but oh well.. I was still there...
This is Dave after the race. They gave all of the marathon participants a medal if they finished under 6 hours. Its a hand made medallion which is pretty cool. Hes still got the same goofy grin on, but the grin soon left as he tried to walk around the house. His legs are hurting pretty bad.
This is the only injury he had. A blister developed on his ankle which popped and then bled for the last half of the marathon. The whole bottom part of his sock was soaked in blood. Gross huh? For his first marathon everything went really well and I am so proud of him. He worked so hard and I am glad that he was able have such a good experience. He's gonna do more in the future, but the very DISTANT future. =)
