It was quite the rainy Saturday yesterday. Which is great because we need the water for this summer. But it's a bit much when you have to run your first ever Half Marathon in it.
Jesse got into this race back at the first of the year and thought he would have plenty of time to train and be totally ready for the big day. Well not knowing that we would be moving it kinda took away from his time to really train for this race. But that still didn't stop him from doing it. I would have been a nervous wreck going into it not having run a whole lot. The highest mileage he ran in the last 5 months was 5.23 miles. His plan on race day was to just run/walk the whole thing. His goal was just to finish.
The night before the race I helped him get everything together that he might need. And the weather was not looking promising. But we still had hope that the rain would hold out until the end of the race.
He left early that morning and met up with my friend Candice who invited him to bum a ride up to the starting line instead of riding the bus transports up there an hour before. He was grateful for the extra sleep.
My plan was to meet him at the finish line. The race was suppose to start at 6:45am and Jesse said he didn't think he would start running until 7:15am. And he thought it would take him 2 1/2 hours at the fastest to finish it. So my plan was to get there around 9:30am.
After I got the boys ready and dropped Ryker off at my brother's house (so he could take him to his football game), Cy and I headed up to Ogden. In Bountiful it wasn't raining and so I started to feel hopeful that Jesse was having the same luck. But the closer I got to Ogden the rain was just pouring down. Oh I was feeling so sad for him and all the racers.
After I parked and got Cy in the stroller I headed to the finish line. I saw so many racers just drenched from the down pour. And then I started to feel panicked that Jesse was done already because I was seeing so many people done. And sure enough, as I got closer to the finish line I heard my name and there was Jesse across the street just soaked and with his medal around his neck.
Oh I kinda wanted to cry because I didn't make it there in time. I know that feeling between finishing with someone at the end for you and not. So I really wanted to be there to support him. But he finished way faster than he anticipated. Because it was raining so hard we just hurried back to the car. So I didn't get any pictures of him at the finish line.
As we walked to the car we talked about the race. He told me the sky was clear and saw a rainbow before the race started. But that didn't last long. I guess it just started to rain as soon as they started and never stopped.
But the cool thing about it all was Jesse was able to run the entire thing. He never walked any of it. Except when he stopped to get a drink at the water stations. But then would start running again after he drank it.
I'm so proud of him for finishing that race so strong. I think I would have cried.
His official finishing time was 2:13. Which I think is fantastic for not ever training and being soaked to the bone. Can you imagine how well he would have done if he would have trained? He certainly has potential to be a great athlete. He's great already being able to pull out 13.1 miles from nothing, but he could be really fast.
I love the finisher medal that they gave the racers. I think they are really cool.
We still had time to make it to Ryker's flag football game. Those poor boys having to play in the rain. Again, I would cry.
I sat in my chair under an umbrella all snuggled up with Cy to stay warm while we watched Ryker play and Jesse coach the game.
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