Marathon #3

About 5-6 months ago, Dan decided to train for the Vienna Marathon.  On April 14th he ran his 3rd Marathon.  

He got all his gear ready.  

(If you don't know what the Vaseline is for... don't ask...)

He ate a rather small breakfast.  He didn't want to get sick on the course.

The boys were really excited for him and we prayed for him before he headed out to the start.

By the way - the tape on his knees is just tape... no bionic implants or anything.  He had been having some knee issues and the tape plus some exercises made a big difference.

(I tried to convince him to take the baby & stroller along to no avail!)

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So with Dan out running his marathon, the boys and I prepared to do a marathon of sorts of our own. 

I escorted 4 boys (including stroller) through the city to a few locations to cheer Dan on. Believe it or not - this was a surprisingly successful outing.

Our first stop was a short bus ride from our house at Pilgrimgasse.  At this point the marathoners and half-marathoners were running together so it was really crowded.  You can see in this pic below people running on the sidewalk.  It was a bit unsafe to stand on the sidewalk.  I saw one girl get clocked by a runner.  So I decided to cushion our location, by standing behind a telephone pole.  

The boys enjoyed our location.  They watched the U-bahn zoom by regularly.

And soon enough, Dan came zipping by.  We passed him some water and a energy pouch (I have no idea what the correct term for energy pouch is!)

Our friend Paul caught these great pics!

Our next stop was near the Rathaus.  We caught him there too.

We met up with some other friends there and they joined us for a little picnic.  The boys played some football/soccer and then we played on the playground.  It was a gorgeous day.

As you can see - this playground was in a really rough part of town.

After this our plan was to meet up with Dan at the finish line.  Surprisingly, we both made it to the finish line, but with the mass chaos and confusion, we couldn't locate each other.  The cell phone towers were overloaded and we couldn't get texts or calls through.  I knew he hadn't brought a house key with him and I was worried that he had went home and was laying on our apartment entry way waiting for me.  We still had church later that evening and he needed to get ready and lead worship.

For this reason, I don't have any great Post-Race shots with the boys lifting him in the air, cheering Daddy, Daddy or any great shot of Dan giving his medal to William (which thrilled him immensely!). 

He had a great race.  

His official time was 4 hours 6 minutes.  

And we had a great race too.