St. George Marathon

Bob signed up to run the St. George Marathon this year. He has been wanting to do it for a few years now, so I'm glad he finally got to do it. :) About 2 weeks before the marathon, he went on a 18 mile run with a few friends. On the first mile, he twisted his ankle... but then shook it off. Well, he must have been overcompensating for his ankle because his knee started hurting shortly after. By mile 10, he said it was really hurting. Well, he ended up running 16 miles before calling me to come get him. His knee was really hurt. The T-Band to be exact. He decided to not run on it until the marathon to give it time to heal. He did run the Swiss Days 5k a week later... he said his knee bugged him a little, but mostly because he was running so freakin fast! :) I hoped it would be ok for the marathon...

On Friday, we decided to make some signs for him to see while he ran. I took the one of the kids and put it at the base of the Veyo hill. I hoped it would give him a little motivation to go up it... :) I put the "Go Hunny Nunny" sign by Russ and Michelle's house in Dammeron. I made that sign because I didn't want to just put "Go Bob"... there could have been 100 Bob's for all I knew. I wanted a sign that he would know it was ME telling HIM that he was doing great! :) The kids also made signs to hold at the finish line. :)

Bob had people cheering him on all along the way. His parents were in Veyo. Russ and Michelle were in Dammeron Valley, Lainee's parents were at their house just past Winchester, Lainee was at the church north of Bluff, Susan and Kyle were along Bluff street, Dusty was also along Bluff and me, the kids, my mom and Ken, Kathy and Aubrey were all at the finish line. :)

When I got the call from Lainee that he was on his last three miles... I got really excited and anxious. Each time I thought I saw him, I would start to cry. I was really overwhelmed by how amazing he is and what a great accomplishment this was.  When I finally saw him... I can't even describe how I felt. I knew my job was to take pictures but I hated having my face behind the camera. I wanted to see his face and I wanted him to see me. I took some pictures, but then took my camera down and started yelling his name. I could tell he was looking for us, but couldn't find us. We were all yelling but it was just too loud.  :) I could tell when he gave up looking for us and just put the finish line in his sights. :) It was a really cool thing to watch him run by. He looked amazing... like it was nothing. :)
He planned on running the marathon in 4 hours... and crossed the finish line in 3 hours and 41 minutes. :) (He crossed the starting line about 5 minutes after the gun went off, that's why the time is different when he actually crossed the finish line.)

I called him after he crossed to tell him to come out of the "runner's" area so we could see him. I spotted him walking through and yelled his name. I love that he put his arms up. It was finally over and he did it! He finished the St. George Marathon and had an amazing time! :)
We all gathered together to hug and take pictures. :) Then we went and sat under a big tree to get out of the sun. Me and the kids rubbed his legs while we waited for news on Garrett.

Garrett's legs were really hurting him for some reason. He ended up stopping at Gai and Randy's house to get some ice on them for about an hour before he finished the marathon as well. I'm so proud of Garrett for finishing the marathon even though his legs could barely move.

I'm so proud of you Bob. You set your mind to run this marathon and you did it. :) You are amazing and I love you so much!