In March, after finishing the Shamrock Half Marathon, Laura decided that she wanted to train for a marathon.  She’s done several races over the last few years, a handful of half marathon’s and multiple other shorter ones too.  When she made up her mind that she wanted to run a marathon, she said it would be her one and only, and chose the Marine Corps Marathon.  So she put in the time, lots of it, almost 6 months training and burning through shoes.  Finally the weekend came when all of her training was done, and all that was left was a family vacation to Washington DC to support Laura’s goal.  We headed out a few days early to get in some sightseeing.

After our drive up to DC, we went to Laura’s packet pick up the first night and got to see a bunch of the other runners and look around the expo.  Laura picked up her runners bib and got some cool memorabilia as well.  The second day we thought we’d treat Brooke to the National Zoo as she loves seeing animals and running around.  We had a great time seeing the elephants, pandas, and a seal show among other animals.  The day took a turn though when Brooke took a hard fall at the zoo and busted up her lip.  Every vacation needs a little flexibility in it, and while we didn’t plan it, we had a trip to the Children’s Hospital for Brooke to get liquid stitches to her lip.  We finally made it back to the hotel several hours after Brooke’s normal nap time and poor Brooke got to take a well deserved nap.  She woke up cranky, but a nice walk around the White House and the National Mall, followed by delicious burgers and shakes seemed to make everything better.

The next day we toured the mall again, going to the National Gallery of Art and the National Botanic Garden.  Then we ate delicious fry bread at the American Indian museum; they almost didn’t let us in when they saw it was Brooke, but we assured them that she had on a sturdy diaper.  That evening, Brooke and I took a nice walk to the World War II memorial while Laura got ready for her big day and rested.  We came back to the hotel to a home cooked meal, pasta for Laura to carbo load on.

Finally the big day had arrived.  By the time Brooke and I were up, Laura had already started the marathon.  We made our way out on to the course and caught up with her around mile 16 and 17.  She was looking as strong as ever.  Brooke had a hard time seeing her Mommy run away, she just wanted to be with her, but Daddy was a good second choice.

We made it through the crowds to the finish line and saw Laura coming through the runners corral, she had done it!  Laura finished the Marine Corps Marathon with a time of 5 hours 25 minutes and 37 seconds.  What a feat!  After that long and tiring run, all she wanted to do was go home and rest; unfortunately there was so many people that the subway line to go home was backed out of the subway station and on to the street for several hundred feet.  We ended up walking a mile uphill to get to a less crowded station.  That night we celebrated Laura’s accomplishment with delicious pizza at home.

Brooke and I are both extremely proud of Laura and all that she has done with her training over the last several months and completing the marathon.  Congratulations Laura!

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