Run a marathon: Check

Jason ran his first marathon this past weekend at Disney World. He did great! It was sunny (once the sun came up...he started running at 5:40 am!) but freeeeeezing. Twenty degrees with the wind chill from start to finish. It was tough to stay hydrated because the water they were passing out kept freezing, and as he pointed out, "You can't drink ice." I had grand plans of getting lots of pictures at the finish line to document this milestone, but we were all so frozen we left as soon as he finished. Here he is bundled up on the monorail in the coat and blanket I brought him:

As he ran past different check points, I would get a text message on my phone, so I was able to monitor his progress from my warm hotel room while my kids slept. Here are the text messages I got:

@ 5 miles in 00:43:05. Pace: 8:37. Predicted: 3:45:55.

@ 10 miles in 01:25:27. Pace: 8:32. Predicted: 3:44:02.

@ Half in 01:52:40. Pace: 8:35. Predicted: 3:45:20.

@ 20 miles in 02:56:21. Pace: 8:49. Predicted: 3:51:11.

He was well on target to come in under 4 hours. At 21 miles he started to cramp in his right thigh (front and back). He ignored it and just tried to run through it. At 24 miles it completely seized up, and he fell off to the grass area. He thought he was going to have to quit because he couldn't walk on it. Luckily, a medic was right there and spent several minutes massaging it and got him to the point where he could do a slow jog/walk. Here's his official time:

04:04:20. Pace: 9:19.

Not bad for your first marathon! Especially since the kids had been sick all week, we'd all been sharing a hotel room and getting sporadic moments of sleep each night, and walking miles through theme parks while we aired out our infirmary. Jason's torn between being thrilled that he was able to finish and being bummed that he didn't come in under 4 hours. He's mostly thrilled, and ready for the next one.

Here we are that night with our medals (I completed the half marathon the day before).

Fun medals, fun race. If you're looking for a first half marathon, this is a good one. Running up main street and through Cinderella's castle is one of my top 5 favorite things I've done in my life. (Even though it snowed at the start for the first time in the history of the race, and sleeted/rained the rest of the time. I've never been so cold for so long in my whole life!)