http://running.competitor.com/cgiresults?eId=54
I went to bed pretty early on Friday night in preparation of having to get up early on Saturday to spectate. Much to mom's chagrin, I woke up at 3:20 really scared that there was a witch in my room. Darn Miss Viola Swamp book that we read in school - that's caused so many dreams about witches in the past few months :( Mom's alarm was set for 4:45 anyway, so needless to say, we didn't get much sleep on Friday night.
Daddy took Metro to DC and mommy and I drove down and parked near the restaurant where we were planning on having lunch. We had a great spectating plan that called for us seeing daddy at miles 5, 13, 20, and the finish. We had a lot of walking / Metro riding to do, so mom left the stroller at home. I'm kind of too big for the stroller anyway, but it also makes navigating the Metro system much more difficult. I decided I wanted to carry my backpack with me which had some paper, markers, and a few stuffed toys. Mom told me I could take it, but had to carry it all by myself, and I agreed. She carried a bigger backpack with some ponchos, an umbrella, a change of clothes for me, and a portable potty, just in case! The weather was supposed to be kind of cold and rainy, so we were hoping for the best and hoping to not get soaked!
We parked and set out to the first spot - mile 5. We parked in Adams Morgan and walked a little over a mile to Rock Creek Parkway. It was a long walk, but we stopped at Starbucks to go potty, get coffee for mom, and a snack for me (I picked out some cheese, fruit, almonds, and crackers!) I was a trooper and held mom's hand and walked the whole way there. There was a rock ledge there, so we were able to sit for a while and have a snack while we waited for daddy. I wore my Minnie ears and shook my cowbell. We saw daddy and he threw us his arm warmers - it had warmed up significantly between the start and mile 5!
After we saw him at mile 5, we stopped at the "portabella" potties (but I let all the runners go first) and walked back to Dupont Circle Metro to head to Union Station to catch mile 13. We stopped at the bathroom at Union Station again since they were real potties and we had enough time to do that and still get to mile 13. My feet started to get tired walking up the hill, but we had a really pretty walk towards the Capitol.
I got to sit down and eat some of my snack when we got there. I gave the Brie to mom, but I really liked the almonds! Turns out we were close to mile 14 and we saw daddy shortly after we got there. He said he was still feeling pretty good.
We headed back to Union Station to take Metro to Mile 20 in Anacostia. There were Metro delays and we had to wait 15-20 minutes before we could get going. When we got to Anacostia, the race was much farther away from the Metro station than we anticipated. It was pretty warm by that point and we had to pretty much run about a half mile to get to where we needed to be. Based on daddy's GPS, we thought he had already passed us by the time we got there. Turns out we had gotten there just a few minutes before he did, but by the time we saw him, we were already walking in the other direction. Mom tried to catch up to him to let him know we were there, but he didn't see us and I got upset because I thought mom was leaving without me (she was maybe 100 ft in front of me and of course never would have left without me!!!).
We ended up grumpily hiking back to the Metro. I was so tired by then and started crying because my muscles hurt. I powered through, though, and got to sit and rest my legs on the Metro back to the finish line. We made it there before daddy did and were able to find a spot along the fence by the finish chute and were able to yell really loudly for daddy as he came through. He didn't see us because he was so focused on the finish, but that's ok. He was working so hard and looked like he was struggling at that point. We saw Molly not far behind him - she had gone back after finishing the half to help him run in the finish.
We all met afterwards and congratulated daddy. Sof, Angela, Molly, and Wendy had all run the half, so they were all there too (along with Steve, Jay, and Paul who were also there spectating). Daddy knew he finished in 3:55 something, but wasn't sure what the official time was. After stretching and winding down a little, we all made our way back to the restaurant for some post race BBQ (and beer for the adults). Since this was the Rock and Roll National Marathon, there was lots of music at the finish. I really enjoyed dancing and being goofy :)
Lunch was yummy, but I didn't eat too much. I had a few glasses of OJ, though, so that was good. Walking back to the car, we saw this goofy car. Weird, huh?
We were all pretty tired by the time we got home, so we all took a short nap, but not too long since it was late in the day. Mom figured out that she and I walked about 7.5 miles total during the day, and I was with her the entire time, so that's how far I walked too - that's A LOT for a little girl!!! I was SUCH a trooper and behaved so well the entire day. Mom let me have mac and cheese for dinner since she and daddy weren't too hungry. Then I got to take a bath in mommy and daddy's tub (it's kind of like swimming - pretty fun!) while mom took a shower. When I had my jammies on, daddy made some jello with me. I picked out raspberry and lime and we made the raspberry last night and will layer the lime on top today. I can't wait to see how it turns out!
After training for the marathon, daddy's going to switch to triathlon training mode. He's got one in May and another in June, with a 10 mile running race in April as well. I'm so proud of daddy and can't wait for the next race to watch!
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