Thursday, October 18, 2012

Go, Daddy, Go

Sometime this summer, my husband's brother (we'll call him J) said he was going to run the Baltimore half-marathon, and did he want to run too?  My husband, who has been a runner off and on since college, said yes right away, because when your big brother asks you to run with him you say yes.  Then my husband looked at me, but before he could even finish forming his thought I said, "That's great, babe!  You should run lots of miles and get all sweaty and tired.  I, however, will do no such thing.  Ever.  I won't.  I am not interested in running with you, ever.  Or running, period.  Even if something is chasing me."

Okay, so now you thought that intro meant that I became a runner over the summer, right?  Hah!  You thought wrong!  You see, I generally live life by the following three principles:
1.  Why run when you can walk?
2.  Why walk when you can sit?
3.  Why sit when you can lie down?  And be carried?  In a litter?  With lots of pillows?

In other words, I am not a runner.

I did, however, learn lots of things about runners this past weekend when my husband and his brother ran their first half-marathon.

1.  Runners are the type of people who A. run and B. get up early.  Really early.  To run.  My guess is that they are generally also the type of people who have organized purses and vacuumed car interiors and always know where they put their keys.

2.  Lots of people are into this running thing.  Like as in at least 50,000 of them.

3.  Runners like to run to everything they do.  I kind of felt all day like everyone else knew there was a giant, man-eating spider just behind us and I was the oblivious girl who was going to turn around and see fangs right in front of her eyes.

Friday night, our little family stayed over with my brother-in-law's family.  We all carbo-loaded (don't worry, we didn't eat fettucini alfredo...if you didn't catch that reference, you didn't watch The Office in its prime) and stayed up late talking.  Sweet Pea was entirely to excited to sleep, so she didn't go to bed until well after midnight.  We had chosen to sleep on a sectional sofa (the world's most incredibly comfy one, truly!) with me on the short side and Hubby on the long side.  That left a space at our feet where the couch formed the L about the size of a couch cushion.  We tried to get Sweet Pea to sleep in her Pack-n-Play (no dice), on a little bed on the floor (no dice) and then finally put her at our feet.  She loved it, and went right to sleep.  The best part was when, in the middle of the night, Hubby stretched out and poked her with his feet.  She woke up, mumbled, "Sop it, Da-yee!" and when back to sleep.

At 5:30 we stumbled out of bed and got ready for the day.  I made a sign at that said, "I Love Daddy" on one side and "Here's Your Sign" on the other.  Yes, comedian reference intentional.  I felt so witty.  I was so impressed that we were all up and ready to go on time!  The kids were all such awesome, sweet, perfect troopers.

And with that, I'll leave the rest of the story-telling to the pictures.

7 am.  40 degrees.  But these two cuties made it bearable.  ;)

Ready to run!

Giggling at her much-adored cousins.  
 We walked over to the start of the full marathon to watch.  At that point I realized that my husband hadn't put our "Here's Your Sign" sign back in the stroller.  (Go ahead...contemplate the irony and laugh.)  I got really mad when he didn't want to go back and get it.  Then we went back and got it.
Very tired, cold, still in jammies, wearing her cousin's sweatshirt.
My heart melts.  And laughs.  ;)

We found some friends on the walk back!  I'm wearing my 13-year-old niece's sweatshirt!  Happy again!  

Our friend J was running the half too.  They decided to be thugs.
 We met back up with our family and the guys headed out to find their corral.  We darted across the marathon path to climb up on a median to see the bazillions of people and look for the daddies.  At this point, I realized I forgot my wide-angle lens, which made for some not-so-super shots.  Oh, well!
Looking for Daddy.  

There they are!  

Those girls in the front are laughing at my sign.  Worth it!
 We watched them take off and then found our way over to my dear friend's house to use her bathroom.  While we were there, another dear friend stopped by after finishing her 7-mile portion of the relay.  They stretched together.




Sleeping in front of the harbor while we looked for family.  
We scouted out a spot on the rail and watched for the guys.  I think one of my favorite parts of the day was witnessing the sense of community and encouragement all around us.

Watching for your person is next to impossible.  
 All of a sudden I heard my sister-in-law shout, "There's J!" I fumbled for my camera, dropped my "Here's Your Sign" sign into the path of the runners, panicked that someone was going to slip, snapped this blurry shot of my brother-in-law, and yelled, "Where's L??!!"  (Here's my sign.)


Then I found him and snapped a shot.  See how he's looking over my short-head?  Yup.  Didn't see me.

The guys did a great job.  We are so proud of them!



Handsome daddies and cute kiddos!


We all made our way back to the cars and piled in to go get lunch.  It was so fun to celebrate the guys together as a family.  Groovy and Pop Pop raised some pretty stellar kids!
With Groovy and her sister, Aunt M.  
 Great job, guys!!!


  

3 comments:

  1. FACT: I wake up early to run. It makes me tired. WAY too tired to vacuum my house or organize my purse.

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  2. That was a great post! I giggled at much of it! I am really awed that you can wear M's clothing. And I loved chatting all night. We need to do that again, when we can sleep in the next morning, and I promise to give up my bed to you!

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  3. Anonymous8:47 PM

    I 2nd Team Lando- get up early to run but no idea where anything is in my house... and it's never clean. I love the picture of the thug boys...with the stroller? hah. awesome.
    xoxo
    and welcome to potty at my house anytime ;)
    PS WAY TO GO LENNY!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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