Marathon Man

Rick ran his first ever marathon on Sunday here in Orlando – the Walt Disney World Marathon.

26.2 miles (as all marathons are).

He expected to finish in ~4 hours. The kids & I didn’t go watch the race because (a) it started at 5.30a; and (b) my conference started at 9a and I didn’t think I should skip the first morning just to watch Rick run. Rick’s dad & step-mom drove over from Tampa to watch the children during the race while I was in class.

But then I started getting his splits (updates on his time) and realized that HOLY COW he was running fast – and then I got to my first session and realized I had the tool of all tools as an instructor – and then I realized that I totally should have been the good wife and had the kids (well, Mallory) make signs and have us all meet Rick at the finish line.

That 20/20 hindsight. Argh.

He ended up finishing the race in 3:35 (that’s three hours and 35 minutes) – meaning he ran it at a pace of 8:08 (that’s eight minutes and eight seconds PER MILE). I can’t run a mile period – let alone run TWENTY-SIX-POINT-TWO of them and that speed?

Needless to say, I was impressed. And really angry that we didn’t go watch him finish.

Instead, we got to see him find us at the playground (my class was out on a break at this point).

Here is his cool medal!

I’m not going to say that this whole marathon thing was fun. His training took up a LOT of his time – time that he could have been spending with his kids. Between you & me, I’m hoping he got this bug out of his system and will stick to smaller races from now on ;-)