Because 26.3 Miles Would Be Crazy

After running in the SoCal Ragnar Relay in April, Meg got the crazy idea that she wanted to be in the 1% of the population that runs a marathon in their lifetime.  She entered the lottery for the St. George Marathon and was picked.  She was lucky enough to get to spend the next 6 months training to run a distance that killed the first person who completed it.

We left for St. George, UT after James got off work on Thursday evening.  The plan was to have the kids fall asleep on the drive up.  Yeah right.  Since the kids were awake at 10pm we thought it would be fun to stop in at the Bellagion in Las Vegas to see the amazing garden (click on the picture to see a larger version and see the weight of that pumpkin) as well as their water show.

We ended up watching 3 of their water shows which feature bursts of water synchronized to music.  Despite being tired the kids could not be pulled away from the fun.  We loaded back into the car and drove the rest of the way (with two soundly sleeping kids) to St. George.

The house we stayed in had a pool so after hitting the marathon expo hall we took a dip.  You can see Ethan was really pleased with that choice.

James dropped Meg and her brother-in-law (Nathan) off at the buses at 4:30 am so they could be shuttled to the start of the race 26.2 miles away.  James went back to the house to get a little shut eye before getting up with the kids and other family members to have some breakfast.  Meg would text James every 5 miles with her location so that we could meet her along the route.  Pictured above are Brielle and Ethan waiting for Mom to come by.  To pass the time, Ethan ate rocks.

Brielle passed the time by giving high fives to random runners and showing them her cheer sign.  According to her, it says "Good job Mom, you are awesome."

At mile 23 we saw the runners coming close.  We gave them words of encouragement and sent them on their way.  They were in surprisingly good spirits, or at least pretended to be so.

Finally, they made it!  They crossed the finish line still moving at a good pace.  Both runners came in under 4 hours 30 mins.  James was very impressed with this time as it was over 30 mins faster than what Meg had planned.

Brielle got a few of Mom's favorite treats for her after she completed the race.  She told her before giving her the candy "Mom, I see some peanut butter cups in your future."  Right she was.  Sadly, despite running for 4.5 hours that is only enough to burn off 13 of these peanut butter cups.  That should make us all think twice before we have a taste!

Below is a video clip of the dash across the finish line.  A true accomplishment for everyone who ran.