Sorry for the slow blogging, life has been busy! To catch you up...
Last weekend was the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach. We've participated in this race for the last three years (not counting the year I was deployed), but we always ran the half-marathon. This year in preparation for Kurt's Ironman he stepped it up and ran the full marathon along friends Todd and Dave. Because I'm doing a race in April (VA Duathlon), I was content to sit this one out and hang-out with the kids.
Our trip started mid-day on Friday. I worked super-late on Thursday so that I could leave early on Friday. It was a smart move as we made it down to Williamsburg prior to rush hour traffic which is horrible around DC on Fridays. We picked up the Estes family in Williamsburg and then kept on going down to VA beach. There was a little bit of traffic getting to the beach, but I didn't mind as we had separated into a boy's car and girl's car at that point :) We checked into our hotel, which the kids were excited to find out had an indoor pool, grabbed some dinner, and took the kids to the race expo to pick up the guy's packets. The expo was fun because it had balloons and leprechauns and really tall, fast-looking guys walking around.
On Saturday I had made plans to meet up with my friend Kathryn and her family to visit the VA Beach Aquarium. I had been here once before, but it was with Micaela when she was little and neither or us really remembered it well. It was a fun time, Kathryn has a little girl about Jon's age so the two of them ran around and got some of their energy out. Some of the highlights were the otter-tank, the aquarium tunnel, petting the stingrays (Micaela eventually touched one, Jon almost fell in he was so anxious), and seeing the Kimono Dragon up close.
That afternoon we met back up with the Estes family, spent a little time at an arcade playing ski-ball and shooting hoops (arcade style). For dinner we went to our favorite pizza restaurant - Pi-zzeria. The food is always good there and I love that they give the kids balls of pizza dough to play with while we wait. We had a couple other friends from Williamsburg, Pedrick and the Hylands, come down and join us for dinner as well, so it was a good time.
Then came the big day... and this is what it looked like 1 hour prior to the race start.
Kurt had actually gotten up early and had all his stuff ready to go. Our hotel was one-block from the start line, so since he had some extra time, why not lay down for a little nap? I would have been a ball of nerves, but not Kurt. Micaela and Jon on the other hand had no desire to get up and watch them start the race, so we planned to see them at the 12-mile point and hour and a half later. Todd was the first to come by at an 1 hour and 45 minutes. He was pretty easy to spot; he saw us too and came over to give Will a high-five. Kurt on the other hand was a little difficult. We had crossed the street and were looking into the sun, so instead of getting a picture of Kurt, I got a picture of this guy:
Last weekend was the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach. We've participated in this race for the last three years (not counting the year I was deployed), but we always ran the half-marathon. This year in preparation for Kurt's Ironman he stepped it up and ran the full marathon along friends Todd and Dave. Because I'm doing a race in April (VA Duathlon), I was content to sit this one out and hang-out with the kids.
Our trip started mid-day on Friday. I worked super-late on Thursday so that I could leave early on Friday. It was a smart move as we made it down to Williamsburg prior to rush hour traffic which is horrible around DC on Fridays. We picked up the Estes family in Williamsburg and then kept on going down to VA beach. There was a little bit of traffic getting to the beach, but I didn't mind as we had separated into a boy's car and girl's car at that point :) We checked into our hotel, which the kids were excited to find out had an indoor pool, grabbed some dinner, and took the kids to the race expo to pick up the guy's packets. The expo was fun because it had balloons and leprechauns and really tall, fast-looking guys walking around.
On Saturday I had made plans to meet up with my friend Kathryn and her family to visit the VA Beach Aquarium. I had been here once before, but it was with Micaela when she was little and neither or us really remembered it well. It was a fun time, Kathryn has a little girl about Jon's age so the two of them ran around and got some of their energy out. Some of the highlights were the otter-tank, the aquarium tunnel, petting the stingrays (Micaela eventually touched one, Jon almost fell in he was so anxious), and seeing the Kimono Dragon up close.
There are otters in there somewhere and they are quite playful!
Not a posed picture, it was just that cool!
Micaela asked me to get a picture of her petting the stingrays, but my arms got tired waiting so I just took a picture of Jon and Kurt instead. She eventually touched one though.
This was one of my favorite parts. I hadn't seen these big guys before (or at least didn't remember if I had). I was too big to get in the bubble but Micaela and Jon went in for a closer look.
Next came one of my favorite parts of the trip - lunch. Adam works down in VA Beach at the Naval Station so he knew about this awesome hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant, Gringos Tacos. It was amazing. Reminded me of California. We will definitely be going back next time we are in VA Beach.
That afternoon we met back up with the Estes family, spent a little time at an arcade playing ski-ball and shooting hoops (arcade style). For dinner we went to our favorite pizza restaurant - Pi-zzeria. The food is always good there and I love that they give the kids balls of pizza dough to play with while we wait. We had a couple other friends from Williamsburg, Pedrick and the Hylands, come down and join us for dinner as well, so it was a good time.
Then came the big day... and this is what it looked like 1 hour prior to the race start.
Good job random guy!
I went out to give Kurt a high-five and he ended up grabbing my arm and trying to get me to run with him, but I wasn't having any of that. We waved goodbye and headed over to the beach to play in the sand until they finished.
After about an hour and a half at the beach we headed over to the finish line. We went early because Todd had been running so well for the first 12 miles, but I didn't expect Kurt for another 30 minutes. I pulled out the folding chair and Micaela sat down with Jon on her lap and it wasn't 10 minutes before he was fast asleep. It was pretty cold, especially with wet jeans from playing in the ocean, but Micaela was a trooper holding Jon and not complaining. Kurt's goal was to finish in 4 hours and right on cue, at 3 hours 58 minutes Kurt crossed the finish. He didn't even look that tired or in pain (as I was after running the LA marathon all those years ago). He kept a steady pace and was very happy with his run. He never hit any walls and his equipment (shoes, watch, clothing) held up just fine. He even had enough energy to drive from VA Beach back up to Williamsburg
This weekend we are just chilling out at home as next weekend we will be heading back to Williamsburg so I can do the VA Duathlon. I'll tell you how it goes in my next blog, if I'm still alive afterwards!!
