Proud Wife - Marathon Edition

This post is so belated, but I couldn't skip over it because I am just so proud of what my husband has accomplished. Before we can get to the marathon part of the post, I need to give you some history.  This was my husband last July.

He started running and tracking EVERYTHING he ate. He worked VERY hard and the weight came off. About 75 pounds later he decided to run a marathon.

We chose the Louisiana Marathon in Baton Rouge and he began training for the January race.  I was amazed week after week as he added mileage.  My sidekick and I spent hours following him around to support and encourage him. (I posted about it here before I fell off the blogging wagon again.)  I think this is my all-time favorite training picture.

We chose the Louisiana Marathon for timing reasons...a good amount of time to train without being too much time. However, the best reason it allowed us to "meet" some awesome "online friends." Desiree blogs at Des 2.0 - The Reboot and Christina who is currently on a blogging break. I will post more about the trip in another post. Right now I want to focus on the marathon part. I am a bit embarrassed that I am rushing to blog about a race from four months ago, but I wanted to share his first marathon before the second one - in 5 days!!!

Louisiana Marathon Recap:

Checking in the day before the big race.

 Everything laid out and ready for the morning.

Then so begins "everything goes wrong" on the race. We had about a half mile walk from the parking garage to the start area. It was still dark and super foggy. When we got to the start line we realized he had lost his iPod. He made a mad dash back to the car...but no sign of it there or the sidewalk between the start and garage. I had bought the iPod for him for Christmas specifically for this race. He had a great time loading it with tons of running music and was very excited to have it to help him through the race. He actually handled it better than I did, but I know it rattled him.

By race time it was lighter, but just as foggy. Another crazy moment was when I realized I still had his belt with his fuel for the race. He had just gone to use the bathroom and I thought he was going to the start line right afterwards and had walked away. When we realized it there was a desperate search - thankfully we found him just minutes before the start time. Needless to say there was way too much chaos and stress heaped on him before the race. (We had felt super prepared.) I didn't even get a pre-race picture!!

 And they are off!!! Sorry about the horrible picture quality.  Low light and speedy runners make some serious blur.

A great feature of the race is they had professional pictures taken throughout the course. Then the pictures were available to download free from their website. There were at least 10 pictures of him on the race website. I love how he appears to be leading the pack in this one.

After the race started Desiree and I hopped in her car and went to the first spectating spot.   The first spot was a few miles into the race. At this point, we were so excited to wave him down. The look on his face when we told him Desiree had found his iPod walking back down the sidewalk to her car was definitely one of my favorite moments of the whole weekend. He put it on and continued running with a little more pep I think.

One thing he learned from this race is to not put his iPod on his collar. He kept spilling water on it.

Me and my awesome spectating partner, Desiree. It was fantastic to have a local to zip us around the course so we could cheer him on several times during the race. Not to mention she is just plain fun to hang out with :)

My heart sank a bit as soon as I saw him around mile 19. I could immediately tell he was hurting. We saw him again a couple miles later and the pain was intense. In retrospect, he feels like he over-trained and his body was worn out. That and the flu was not a good combination.

He ended up walking several of the last miles and came in about an hour later than he hoped. But he pushed hard and finished. I could not be more proud. Persevering through adversity is every bit as impressive as sailing through something.

I knew this would be the scene when he got to the finish line. Medical came right up to him at the finish and took him to the medical tent. I was very worried, but grateful that he was being checked over.

He bounced back and finally picked up his medal. The entrance to the medical tent was right before where they were handing out the medals. He told me later that his big concern in the tent was that he wasn't going to get his medal.

 After the race we walked around the Finish Festival and sampled some Cajun goodness.

 My favorite was this jambalaya. It was cooked in the biggest pot I have EVER seen!

My husband had decided to run this marathon in honor of his friend's 6 year old son who passed away of liver cancer two years ago. He raised about $800 for the foundation his parents set up to help local families dealing with childhood cancer and to fund research.

He has come so far in the past year. This wife could not be more proud. And there is even more to this story, but I will save it for another post :)

If you have followed my blog for awhile you most certainly know of my fabulous group of ladies (in fact if you are are reading this you are probably one of them).  We "met" almost three years ago through blogging, formed a Facebook group and have become close friends. We have cheered and supported each other through so much more than our weight loss goals - we have celebrated weddings, babies, job promotions and various personal accomplishments. We have also supported each other through deaths, health setbacks, relationship issues, work challenges,  Speaking for myself, this group has given me so much strength after our miscarriage and through the entire foster care experience. I am truly grateful for them.   Although, we are scattered across the country, many of us have had the opportunity to meet up with others from the group, but this weekend will be the first time we have had a group get together. Our Meg from Running Just as Fast as She Can will be running the Flying Pig Marathon and several of us are traveling to Cincinnati to cheer her on.

In addition, to meeting up with these awesome ladies, my husband will be running the Flying Pig Marathon (I will be walking the 5K the day before). He is hoping to run the race he really wanted to run in Baton Rouge. He has been training differently this time and no flu in sight. I am excited for him to have a great race.