Our Family Maddness: 69,168 feet = 13.1 miles

69,168 feet = 13.1 miles. Who cares about this statistic, well I bet Matt and David do. Why? On April 21st, they ran in the Salt Lake City Half Marathon.

David challenged Matt to run in a Half Marathon with him during the winter, so they looked at prices and decided to run the Salt Lake Half Marathon. This was Matt's second half marathon and David's first. I wasn't planning on going to cheer Matt on as I had been there for the first half marathon and all you get to do is wait forever and try to see if you can catch them running by. Well, Kristin talked me into it, plus I could help keep track of the kids.

Matt printed out his training schedule of 10 weeks and did pretty well for the first couple of weeks than began wondering why he was doing this again. He really doesn't like running. I always ask him how he can train and then run 13.1 miles if he doesn't like it. He just says it is a goal and he is going to make it. I think he is crazy to just run. I like to run when a ball is involved, soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball, water polo (obviously you swim for water polo). Matt still says he will put a picture on his back and let me chase him. I think he is funny. The last couple weeks of his training were really sparse, but he trained for his 13.1 miles still the same.

The night before his marathon, I told him he needed to load up on carbs, so we took his mom to Chili's and Carb loaded. I of course to pictures to commemorate the dinner.

Ma hiding from the camera

She is giggling in this picture. Ma thanks for always being a good sport.

I took several tries for Ma to get our picture to come out not blurry.

Saturday, April 21st - the day of the Marathon

Matt had to be at the starting line by 6:00am, so he was gone by the time I even work up. The race started at 7:00am, so I left to meet Kristin at the Gateway at 8:45. We figured the boys would take over 2 hours to finish the 13.1 miles. We tried to find a spot along the finish line for us and the kids to see. Gracie could barely see over the fence, so we had to hold Katie and Parker up for them to see.

We ended up waiting for 20 minutes for Matt and 50 Minutes for David to run by us. Poor David ended up with some nasty blisters only a few miles into the marathon. Matt ended up finally leaving David behind at 6 miles. They both finished the race and we were able to get pictures of them come up to the finish line.

I easily recognized Matt's run as he really has a spring in his step.

Here is the spring that I can easily recognize as Matt's springy step.

Focused and determined.

Matt just about to the finish line. GO MATTIE!

Matt came over and gave his adoring fans a sweaty hug....while I got to take the picture. Yeah no sweat on me!

Parker, Katie, and Gracie. They ALL love him.
I love when they call him MATTIE!

David came in behind Matt and was hard to find at first. I mistook some else for him and got the girls excited for nothing. But the next time I did see "him", it really was him.

Here comes David.

There goes David

Adoring fans waiting for their dad.

After David went by us, we went to the finish line to meet up with him and to congrats and see everyone. We took pictures while waiting for Matt and David to stretch and cool down.