somethingsomethingdotcom: 3.1+5.6+6.4+5.5+5.6=26.2 & 13.1+13.1=26.2

ah, VCM 2009. that’s the start of summer for my family. we’ve been participating in the marathon since about 2005 and our numbers have been increasing ever since.

last year, jennie and julie trained for their respective parts of the half together, but didn’t like not getting to run together. So, this year, they enlisted the collins brothers to run the other half of their halves, so they could run together.

team j squared

team two young lovers with nothing better to do (10 points for song & artist)

derek split the marathon with his younger brother jeremy, and although they both had very different training strategies, they finished well. derek is the only runner i know who smiles while he’s pounding the pavement. yesterday he had more of a determined facial expression and didn’t even acknowledge us when he ran by us at the waterfront coastguard station. His determination paid off and he came in at about 1:20.

The less daring (stupid? masochistic?) members of my extended family chose to split the 26.2 miles five ways. lynn (derek’s mom), danielle (derek’s sister & my good friend), stephanie (jeremy’s wife & my childhood friend), chris (derek’s best friend & my former swim teacher), and i each ran a portion of the marathon.

it was a rainy day, which i preferred for my 5.6 miles, though the spectators weren’t as keen to get soaked. baxter, paige, emma, marg, jon, and alan were fair weather fans and chose to spend the rainy morning napping and playing indoors, and left soon after the starting whistle blew.

paul, the super spectator stuck it out on his bike and made sure to place himself at prime cheering locations.

before i ran my leg, i asked bax for any strategies he might have. he had run his first race on Saturday – the YAM (youth athletic movement) scram for ages 4+.

he ran his .5 mile race with the same determination and facial expression as his father (who may or may not have had tears in his eyes when he pinned his sons bib on).

the proud parents ran with their son, and the proud aunt suz looked just like she did in the birthing room – camera in one hand, video camera in the other, racing from one side of the loop to the other for a glimpse.

baxter’s advice was this: run really fast, pass as many people as you can, and have lots of people behind you. i tried my best. he also fueled me up with power kisses and a great big power hug, and i did just fine, though there were plenty of people ahead of me (but plenty of people behind me too).

carb loading with strawberry waffles before his grueling .5 miles

there were 11 runners total in our contingency (though tim, jeff, & julie are missing from our photo because however fast those collins brothers run, they are slow slow slow and didn’t make it to our group photography session in time).

timmy tim, wearing hiking shorts, no less

paul and i hosted the annual carb-loading, pasta dinner this year at his (almost ours) place on lake iroquois.

penne pomodoro, garlic bread a la julie & tim, and salad & rhubarb crisp a la derek’s garden, fueled us for Sunday, and the after party at jennie & derek’s (featuring beer can chicken and mom’s famous turtle nut cake) helped us replenish all the calories we’d burned.

tidbits that you hopefully didn’t miss: the woman who came in under 3 hours who had poop running down her legs, the bloody nipples of many of the men (jeremy tried his best to stop the rubbing, but it was hard to run 13.1 miles holding his shirt away from his chest), and the portapotty signs that said, “flip me over when out of TP.” lynn and i didn’t know how we were going to possibly flip over a portapotty, but paul set us straight when he showed us how to simply flip over the sign.

will i brave the 13.1 miles next year for my 3rd lifetime half? jennie & julie now have 3 under their belts. i’m just not that much into competition. running is supposed to be fun, right? right? actually, it really was.