Country Music Marathon and Half

We had a great weekend in Nashville for the Country Music Marathon and Half Marathon. Everyone who ran did amazing and it was fun to watch and cheer them on. Here's my rundown of the race from a spectator's point of view since I didn't run! :)

We had some fun at the marathon expo the day before the race. It was huge and we got a lot of good free stuff! Gotta love free samples!

This mural was all made out of crayola crayons. I thought it was really cool!

We carbed up the night before at Fazoli's and got ready for the race the next day. Everyone was worried because the weather forecast for Saturday was not looking so good. There was talk of lots of rain, storms, and even possibly a tornado warning. So we didn't know what to expect but surprisingly the weather held off for most of the race. Guy, Jason, and my parents left around 5:00 AM to get to the race and catch the shuttle to the starting line. I stayed back at the hotel with kyle and my boys so they could sleep a little longer. I guess traffic getting to the race was insane. 33,000 people ran this and all of them trying to get into downtown Nashville at the same time didn't quite work out so well. But they made it and started just fine. I knew that with my kids, we wouldn't really be able to run around town and see them at all the spectator spots so we decided to just go near the end. I parked at what I thought was a convenient spot and it was, but we walked the longest way to get to the finish line area. If we had just went over the bridge to the right instead of left we would have gotten there in half the time but apparently I just like to do things the hard way. I have no sense of direction! Seriously, by the time we got there I felt like I had just run a marathon!

The place we parked was close to where the runners passed at their 2 mile mark so we stopped to watch for a few minutes. I wasn't sure if everyone had passed yet or they if were still coming but we figured out they had all passed already.

So we got to our spot at the finish line and waited. Guy was originally signed up to run the full marathon but decided a few weeks before the race that he was just going to do the half since he hadn't had time to really train for a full. Life has been crazy lately! So I figured he would be finishing the half around 1:30 or so. All I have to say, is that being a spectator is hard work! There were SO many runners and trying to scan through all of them to find certain people is hard. Not to mention doing that while trying to keep your kids out of the race! Tyler was happy at first that I was letting him play in the dirt but once that excitement wore off, his main goal was to join the half marathon. And when I wouldn't let him crawl into the street, he pretty much lost it. So that was great fun but I managed to still stay close and watch. I finally saw Jason running by and doing awesome! I was seriously so proud of him and we cheered but I don't think he heard us with his headphones in. Then I saw my parents run by and cross the finish line! Seriously, they did SO amazing! I was so happy they had run their first half marathon together...it reminded me of when Guy and I ran the St. George marathon together last October. It's a cool thing to do! But I still had not seen Guy so I just figured that I had missed him in the crowds and he would be waiting at the finish line.

Here's Jason running to the finish. He should feel lucky because he's the only one I was able to get a picture of during the race. I couldn't get to my camera fast enough when I saw my parents run by... sad! :(

I saw so many crazy people running...like these guys dressed up in costumes for the whole half. I can't even imagine running like that. We also saw a guy that juggled for the whole half marathon while running. Why someone would want to do that, I just don't know???

13.1 miles...piece of cake, right guys!! haha!

Well we finally found my parents and Jason at the finish line area. It was basically chaos back there because there were SO many runners. But we still hadn't found Guy so I came to the conclusion that he must have run the full marathon. I had a gut feeling he was going to do that from the start. The problem was that literally after my parents finished the half, it started to pour down rain. So we decided we better get Brayden and Tyler out of the rain and back to the car. Since I was the only one that knew where I parked the car, I went back with my dad, Kyle, and the kids while my mom and Jason stayed back to wait for Guy. They had a meeting area where you could wait by a sign with the first letter of your last name so they just stuck by the "H" sign. We drove back to the hotel and about 30 minutes later I got a call from Guy telling me that he had run the full marathon and they were driving back. Seriously I have no idea how he did the whole thing without really training for it, but he did and I was so proud of him. And he did it under 4 hours again which is even more amazing! I guess at mile 21 they were starting to divert marathon runners to the half marathon finish due to the weather. Guy had already passed that point before they started doing that but there were a lot of runners who weren't allowed to finish the whole 26.2 and they were mad! It really just rained and I can see their point as they let all of the half marathoners finish their race even after it started to pour. If you had trained really hard to run a full marathon it would be kind of disappointing to not get to do that. Guy said he wished they would have diverted him at mile 21 though because the last few miles were brutal!

So this is my only picture of Guy from the race...back at the hotel

And here's his medal...I forgot to take a picture of the half marathon medal but it was really cool too.

We ate a yummy restaurant after everyone had showered and relaxed a bit. Brayden was so worn out he fell asleep while eating...and Kyle pretended to be asleep too. All the runners were pretty sore but they still managed to get around ok. We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out and having fun. We saw How to Train your Dragon at the movies and checked out the Nashville Zoo which was such a nice zoo. All the exhibits are so natural and not your typical concrete slab cages. I loved it and wished we could be regulars there!

My dad found a caterpillar for Brayden to hold and we loved how he called it a "caderpiddar"

Watchin the meerkats

So I guess, to fit in with all the "limpers" my back decided to give out so that I would have to hobble around too. Seriously I have never thrown my back out until this year. This is the second time and I hate it! I'm blaming it on Tyler because he is still not walking and that boy is heavy! Well, he took 10 steps this weekend which is the most he has ever taken but he he's still not steady and he still prefers to crawl. So since everyone else was so sore from running, I held Tyler a lot this weekend when he wouldn't stay in his stroller or when we didn't want him crawling on the yucky floors. And now I am paying for it...not fun. I've decided this must be what it feels like to get old and let me tell you, these little glimpses do not make me very excited about my future. Either Tyler needs to walk soon or I am going to need to invest in a cane!

Anyways, GOOD JOB to everyone in this race! I'm SO proud of you all and I'm glad we could all be together for the weekend! We had a great time! :)