So I started kicking the idea around at the beginning of the year to start getting serious about "checking the box" for running a marathon before I started getting too old (I know-all of the legitimately old people reading this are rolling their eyes). Luckily, my friend and co-worker Jon had already run 3, and agreed to train with me for the Air Force Marathon in September. We trained HARD for 18 weeks starting in May. For anyone who's never trained for a full marathon, it's a HUGE time commitment. That said, it's also a great way to get to know a city if you've just moved there! I really enjoyed exploring new areas of Boston, and especially enjoyed running along the Charles River. TONS of people run along the trails there both night and day and it makes you feel like you're part of some kind of running club or something. Boston's a really fit city-and that trail probably has its share of MIT/Harvard students trying to run to blow off steam. The scenery isn't bad, either.

Anyways, Jon and I trained for the full marathon, and our wives "trained" for the half. I'll refrain from selling out my wife by detailing her "training" regimen, but suffice it to say that my excessive use of quotes here alludes to the fact that she didn't so much follow a real program, but instead practiced a binge-training method with intervals of chocolate-carbo-loading.

Though our hotel was only 2 miles from the race and we left 2 hours early, Jon and I still had to jump-ship, leave the girls to deal with traffic, and jog over a mile to the start. I had some last-minute business to take care of, but unfortunately, there were like 12 port-a-potties for 12,000 people. Anyways, the gun went off while I was still in line, so Jon took off with the pace group without me. I made a valiant effort to catch up, and got to Jon by mile 11. He had eaten some gel at mile 7 which wrecked his system and REALLY slowed him down. Up to mile 16, I was running 3:20 pace, but then everything locked up on me. I finished in 3:44, and Jon came in about an hour later. It stinks that we had trained so long together and only ran about 15 seconds of the race together! Stupid gel. Moral of the story is to race like you trained. The girls finished the half-marathon and had a great time. Britt was running low at one point when a young girl in the crowd handed her a chocolate chip muffin and saved the day! Great experience, but it took it's toll on my body.


The four of us drove to Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. Fourteen hours each way! Here are the ladies keeping things lively during the LONG ride...


Checking in at the runner's expo.


Checking in at our ghetto hotel. We think we had a bullet hole in the comforter.


Getting ready at 0-dark-thirty (seriously, like 0430) for the race with our pace tattoos.


After the race at Leanne's farm in Logan, Ohio (I will point out that I could barely walk at this point).