Marathon man!

Last Friday we loaded Violet into the car and drove to St. George, Utah for Clark to run his first marathon. It's about a 6 hour drive. He's been training for a while, but not as diligently as he would have liked due to school and the baby. The drive out went fine. Violet was great in the car until it came time for her second nap. She doesn't ever sleep on her back any more so it is difficult for her to fall asleep in a car seat. After 40 minutes of crying, I eventually had to take my hair down and let her suck on the ends of it. This is something she occasionally does when I am rocking her before naptime. It worked like a charm. She grabbed two handfuls of hair, stuffed them in her mouth and closed her eyes immediately. Babies are so strange.

The morning of the marathon Clark had to get up at 4 am to get ready to catch the buses up to the marathon starting line. The buses ran from 4 am to 5:30 am. He made it up to the starting line around 5:15 and realized why some people didn't get on the buses even when there was room. It was 39 degrees at the starting line due to the difference in elevation. He had long sleeves and long (thin) pants and gloves, but no hat or anything else. Oh well, marathon runners are supposed to be tough, right? He says that the first 19 miles of the marathon were wonderful and he was running right on target to finish in 3 hours (that's about 7 minute miles). Then he got to the 20th mile and things started to fall apart very fast. His legs just didn't want to go fast any more. But he kept going and made it in 3 hours, 18 minutes (which I think is still VERY good)! The baby and I made it to the starting line and wedged ourselves onto some bleachers while we anxiously awaited his arrival. I managed to get it on video, complete with Grandma Ridge-esque cheering.

Clark's marathon finish from Lilly Ridge on Vimeo.

We are so proud of him! Following the marathon he was in a lot of pain but he's already pretty much recovered and thinking about his next marathon. Or maybe he'll run a half marathon next.

The trip home was going really well until we got to Baker (out in the middle of the desert) and discovered Violet had pooped all over her car seat. It took Clark over an hour to take it out, take it apart and clean everything enough to put her back in it again. She was in a great mood and didn't understand why daddy was a little cranky with her.

The overall highlight of the trip for me came when we were out to dinner Saturday night (Cafe Rio, our first time!). Two college-aged girls were talking to Violet and playing with her while we stood in line. They said to us, "there are a LOT of babies in this state, and we've seen a lot of them, but she is the cutest baby in all of Utah!" They almost got themselves a free dinner.