this post is dedicated to my psychotic husband. the marathon runner. this all just started off as 'something to do'. he had always kinda wanted to run a marathon, just so he could say he had done it. there are things that i want to do just so i can say i've done it, but none of those things include me running for over 4 or 5 or 6 hours. most of them include consuming copious amounts of coffee around the world.anyhow, chris' marathon day started at 3am. he had to pee. which sucked cause his alarm clock was set for 4:15am. needless to say he didn't get much sleep for that last hour. (it may or may not have had something to do with my snoring. i'm actually still not sure.) when his alarm went off he was more than ready. shower. make coffee. drink coffee. pray for a good bowel movement. before the race of course.
i woke up with chris- ONLY to drive him to the starting line. or to the general vacinity at least. i went back to the hotel room, prayed for no shin splints, no poop in the pants, no cramps, no dehydration, no dying. and then i went back to sleep.
robert, lindsay and i left our gross hotel at about 8am. i already started getting text messages about chris' times. he had started at 6:27am. then he crossed the 5k mark in 27 min and 31 seconds. that freaked me out cause that meant he was running too fast. but it took me til RIGHT NOW as i am writing this post to realize that the text said 5k, not 5 mile. that's different. ok. so, he passed the half marathon mark in 2 hours and 4 minutes. that's 13.1 miles. 21 kilometers. that was at 8:31am and i started sweating cause we were just leaving the hotel. but then i realized he still had at least 2 hours and 4 minutes to go, so we headed to starbucks and got some coffees and pastries. the best breakfast i had had all weekend. (did i complain about my hotel yet? i might have to write a full-post complaint about that).
we proceeded to Qualcom stadium, where the Chargers play football, cause that's where there was free parking. from there we (and about 30,000 other people) took a trolley, then a bus to the finish line. getting there was actually not all that bad. getting back to the car was a nightmare. NIGHTMARE. or night terror. whatever. it was bad. the marathon organizers are going to get an earfull when i'm through with this post.
anyway, chris was still trucking along VERY steadily, and i was pretty sure we had plenty of time to get to the finish line before he did, but i had a sinking feeling in my stomach. there were so many people everywhere. but we managed to find an amazing spot near the 26 mile marker along the beach. we were there for a good couple minutes, and then robert camped out a few yards ahead of lindsay and i. we were standing there observing people running, walking, limping, falling in front of us. some family and friends jumped in to support their runner for the last few feet. it was all very very moving. i was nervously awaiting my husband, not sure what state he would be in at this point. and then lindsay got a call: "he's coming!"
we looked down the lane of runners and this is what we saw:
yes. chris on robert's back. classic watson move. ridiculous. these boys could not be cuter together. robert carried his sweaty big brother for a couple more steps, and then let him down. they crossed the finish line together. but not without chris yelling at him once: "slow down!" fresh legs vs very very tired ones. chris crossed the finish line in 4 hours and 19 minutes and 24 seconds. again- ridiculous.
so that was 'our' marathon experience. it was better than good. the running part that is. chris had even stopped during the run to get a massage from the medics, walk during water breaks, and even wait in line at the port-a-pottys. for the poop that never came. (as long as it wasn't in his shorts!)
chris watson- i could not be prouder of you! you are one fit specimen of awesomeness. be prepared for another marathon post in january!
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