marathon man

Sunday Chris participated in the OKC Memorial Marathon. He was on a relay team with some family members and a friend of my cousin. Chris ran the first leg, which was a 10K (6.2 miles). His time was about 54 minutes, which I think is pretty good. The original start time for the race was 6:30 am, but because of lightning the race didn't start until 7. He was able to walk over to the start line because the race begins and ends at the bombing memorial and we live pretty close to it. He was going to run right by the school so he texted me and told me about what time to look for him. Thankfully, I threw on a coat and bundled Elle up in the jogging stroller because it was freezing and raining. Yes, we are wearing coats in May.
We headed over by the Lincoln fence and waited about 10 minutes before Chris came by. I took a couple of pictures in case we missed each other to prove that we got out there to see him.
In all the excitement of him running up to the fence and tossing me his long sleeve shirt I didn't get his picture.

I was glad we saw some of it. I am very proud of Chris, and his teammates, but also because it was amazing seeing just the number of people we did see that are willing to do it. I think the total was around 26, 000 people, but I can't find any official stats anywhere. We found out the memorial doesn't receive any federal funding. The first race contributed about $20,000 and then last year it contributed about $750,000.

(I'd also like to give special props to Randy (my cousin's wife) who ran the last 10K and got hailed on twice!)

Chris is pretty pumped about continuing to do more races. We're looking into the Tot Trot on May 13th, which supports Oklahoma Christian Services. Chris will run the 5K and Elle and I will walk the 1 mile-fun walk. May be a new family tradition!