The Marathon

This weekend Anton ran the Baton Rouge Beach Marathon. While I don't understand the appeal of running 26.2 miles, I'm supportive of him and his crazy ideas of fun. Since Baton Rouge is quite a ways from home we drove up the night before. We spent the evening driving the marathon course. Along the way we saw this interesting sight:

Hundreds of birds were gathering in the trees just in this one section of the lake. I had to get out and snap a few pictures. What's odd is all the black birds are in the tops of the trees and all the white birds on the bottom. Strange. But it also looked really cool with the sunset behind it:

Baton Rouge sure does have nice sunsets:

I got my cuties all posing in front of it too:

Some people conveniently turned their car lights on right as I was taking the picture so Ella was nice and lit. Anton wasn't so lucky, I had to use the flash for him:

And Alex, well he just wouldn't hold still:

And see his face? That's what he gets for eating the sand! After our bit o' beach fun we headed back to the hotel.

Alex wanted to go out and play with the elevator more. He was so tired. We all went to bed around 9:30, late for the kids, early for us. Of course I slept terribly since it wasn't my bed. Plus we had a king size bed and all they gave us were a million little bitty down pillows. They were awful. Like sleeping on mini marshmallows. Not fun.

The next morning we got up at 5:30 AM. Yuck. Luckily the kids were too tired to complain. We got one of the last parking spots in the close parking lot, thankfully, and Anton began warming up. Finally it was time for the race to begin. But wait. Where's Anton? Oh there he is:

In line for the bathroom. Nothing like leaving the essentials to the last minute. But he managed to get to the starting line in time. And then it was, on your marks, get set,


GO!!!

People running everywhere! And of course I couldn't manage to get an in focus shot of Anton starting the race:

Who looks that happy when they know they have 26 miles left to go? Crazy boy. This was an absolutely beautiful place to hold a marathon, though. The course went around a big lake by LSU:


And around the lake are all sorts of southern plantation style houses. You know, the ones with the columns and wrap-around porches and such. Here's one I managed to snap a picture of:

I think this was actually a frat house. Rough living. What a beautiful place. And if forced to run a marathon this would be the place to do it. But anyways, back to the race.

There were a couple spots around the course that we were able to walk and see Anton running.

Here he is at about 1.5 miles. No sweat.

Here's the 5 mile mark. Still looking good. The sun was just staring to peek over the trees and such about this point. The kids were being so good. I guess the tiredness hadn't really kicked in yet.

Alex hasn't learned yet that you don't stare straight into the sun.

And Ella? Well she's never one to turn down a photo moment. Model in the making.

We headed back around to the starting point to catch Anton at the end of lap one. (It was a 2 lap race.)

Look how happy he is! Does that look like someone who has just run 13 miles? I would've been dead long before. He was doing so good! Back around the lake to our other viewing posts.

Mile 14.5ish.

Mile 18. At this point he told me he was starting to feel it and felt like he had a blister on his foot. Uh oh. But he pressed on.

While waiting for Anton at the finish line Andrea and her kids showed up to help cheer Anton on. The kids found this light post very amusing:

Around, and around, and around. Even after Clayton took a flying leap off of it and cut his elbow.

After waiting for about a half hour after I calculated Anton should be finishing the race I started to get concerned. Where was he? Time kept passing and more people kept finishing and still no Anton. An hour after when he had planned to finish I was about ready to send a medical team out after him when I finally spotted him coming around the final corner. He was barely jogging, but was determined to see it through to the end. And finish he did:

I am so proud of him!! He finished in 4 hours 32 minutes. Right about mile 23 him muscles all started cramping up and his arms went tingly. He needed sugar. He ended up walking the last 3 miles. Poor guy. But he came through victorious anyways. Here's a video of his finish:



You can hear Ella yelling "Go Daddy!" I had to teach her to yell it loud because she kept whispering it. She had it down by the end. I really wanted her to go run the final stretch with him but she wouldn't. Oh well.

We took Anton back to the hotel to shower. Then we whisked him off for more activity. No rest for him. He could barely stand up or walk. We got some lunch then headed over the the destroyer the USS Kidd:

It was used during WWII and onwards. They let you climb all around and inside of it. The kids were having a blast. They kept climbing up in all the bunks:

Alex thought the ammunition was more fun:

Anton managed to find the only soft chair on the whole ship:

To get from one level to the other you had to climb up and down these really steep sets of stairs. Andrea opted out of the upper decks due to her fear of heights, so trying to navigate the stairs with 4 children and only one whole adult (Anton wasn't much help) was a bit of a challenge.

Alex kept getting really mad that we wouldn't let him do it himself.

The early morning was kicking in full force now.

Ella had all sorts of fun playing with the helmets that had laying all over the deck:

She even poses in military garb. Lane got in on the action too.

And I couldn't resist taking a shot at Anton while he was down for the count:

Poor crippled guy.

And after all the fun and kid wrestling we said goodbye to Andrea and kids and we all headed home. It was a long sleepy drive, and I was forced to do it all myself. I made Anton put on a movie to keep me awake. But we finally made it home, and a lot of pain killers later and some good sleep and Anton can finally walk down the stairs, as long as he goes backwards.

Good job baby, I'm proud of you!!