Marine Corps Marathon!

Well the MCM & 10K were a success!!! I'm proud to say that everyone in our little group finished the race without any (major) injury and was able to walk hobble afterwards. ;) Robin and I finished our 10K in one hour and fifty-one minutes, and that is with me needing a potty break and hobbling around on my gimp knee (that I didn't know I had.) As for the others I don't remember everyones' times, but what matters is that they finished!

Overall I think everyone had a great weekend, Rush and I drove up Friday and was able to eat with dinner with everyone, and even got to hang out with Roy and Will afterwards. Then Saturday we got up early and had an AWESOME buffet breakfast, before we headed out to our desired locations. Robin and I had planned on getting on the Metro and heading into DC for the day, but when we got to the station the line to get on the Metro was no kidding probably 2 to 2 1/2 hours long! So we quickly nixed that and decided to head up to Annapolis with everyone else. (Apparently someone thought it would be a good idea to plan a rally and another 10K walk today (the day before the MCM) needless to say I wasn't happy, it messed up all of our plans for the day.) Anyways, Navy was playing Duke that day so we all met up with Quinn and his Naval buddies and tailgated with them for a little bit before Robin and I headed out to explore downtown Annapolis. It was a whole lot of fun too! We stopped in a little chocolate/candy shop and got hot chocolates and a chocolate covered pretzel stick and sat by the harbor to eat and drink. Then we did some window shopping before Leland and Laura picked us up and we headed back to the hotel. It was time for dinner and to load up on carbs (more them than us, but I was still more than happy to carb up on some fetticini alfredo.) Oh and sadly Navy lost to Duke 31-34. But on a high note Baylor beat Texas and A&M beat Tech!!!! It's always a good day when A&M wins and Texas loses. :)

 Not sure who these guys are but they were good and put on a neat show near where we were tailgating. They even had some dancers that danced a "jig" or three. Pretty sure they were a club within the Naval Academy.

On to Race day! We were all pretty tired (it's hard to get to bed early when you are busy hanging out and catching up with family you hadn't seen in a while) but we all managed to get up and get ready before the crack of dawn and on the road to the Metro station. This is a picture of us in the backseat of the rent car on the way to the Metro! Quinn was a good sport and jumped in the back (where I am fairly certain I would've ended up (had I not been carrying his nieces) because I'm the smallest framed.)

Lucky for us we got on at the end of the line so it wasn't too crowded. Then us 10Kers parted ways with our Marathon runners to go to our respective start lines (us 10Kers start at the 20 mile mark for the marathon runners and we all start at the same time.) This is Lindsay our backdoor neighbor, she's due 2 days before me! She was with a group of women running for 2/6 (some wives, others mothers or sisters, etc.) who are currently in Afghanistan.

It was a pretty neat experience, there were random people cheering everyone on at different spots on the road, and there were even a few places that were blaring music (either from the radio or a small band) and we even passed a group of women drummers! Since we were the last 6 miles of the marathon there weren't too many neat sights to see, but we did stop to get a picture of the Jefferson memorial with the Washington memorial in the background.

Robin surprised me when I came out of the porta potty and took a quick picture! I have hand sanitizer in my hands (in case you were wondering...)

Once Robin and I finished we quickly found a place to sit and eat and drink from our goodie bag, and let our feet and knees have a rest. Then since we knew it would be a while before we saw any of our group finish the marathon we went to have a look around at all of the goodies being given away. We were even able to get a short massage! Our plan had been to finish and change and then go look around downtown DC but we were both hurting (me more than Robin) so we ended up not getting very far, and just went to the bleachers to wait for our group to come across the finish line. We had a pretty good view from our bleacher seats!

 Can you see Laura? I spotted the Texas Rangers hat before I saw her! :)

 Not long after I spotted Rush, first thing I noticed was that he was still wearing his gloves! He used them to wipe the sweat off his face! *I married a smart man!* :)

 Then came Quinn, strolling along, like he didn't have a care in the world!

 Hats off to you Leland for running another marathon!

Once Leland crossed, Robin and I walked hobbled over to meet everyone at the Iwo Jima Monument.

 A thumbs up! (Pretty sure that means that running a marathon is getting checked off of his bucket list, and never to be done again!)

 Leland and Laura

 This is a pretty good side belly shot of me at 23 weeks!

 Quinn and Jill

 My man in his fashionable blanket skirt! ;)

 Robin and me! The 10Kers, which we will probably do again, just not pregnant!

Once we all finally got back to our hotel we went to celebrate with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. *This is totally a side note, but their serving portions are ridiculous! Each plate they served could've fed 3 adults! And of course we didn't know this when we ordered.* We still indulged and took home a few slices of cheesecake to eat once we had more room in our tummys! And Robin just had to get a picture of me eating mine (Rush is watching the Rangers game) with my big ole belly and faithful bulldog. :)

Over all I think it is safe to say that everyone had a great weekend. I wouldn't mind going back to do the 10K again, I just don't know if I want to do it pushing a double stroller! I hope everyone enjoys the pictures! :)