Utah Valley Marathon

On June 11th, Dad got up bright and early at 3am to catch a bus to Wallsburg to start the race at 6am for the Utah Valley Marathon.
 
Before we headed out to wait for Dad to finish we stopped at the Provo Bakery for some donuts and honey bran muffins.

Watching the runners cross the finish line.

Then you got a little bored and had all kinds of fun with Dad’s shirt.


Dad was taking too long. Dad said that he should be crossing the finish line about 9:20am if he did as well as he was hoping, but we still hadn’t seen him. So you rested on the ground. I was trying to track Dad on my phone but his tracker wasn’t moving and it was scaring me because I was thinking the worst.
 
While we were waiting we saw this poor lady's legs give out. She collapsed to the ground, but thank heavens her friend stopped her from hitting her head. She was nearly 100 yards to the finish line when her friend and another runner picked her up and basically dragged her over the finish line.  It was so touching to watch. We told Gramps later and he said that she was severely dehydrated.

I got a hold of Nana and she looked Dad up on the tracker and saw him a couple of blocks away.  We cheered him on as he ran across the finish line.

Dad ran it in 3:50 minutes, slower than his first marathon. We met up with Dad and he looked like his legs were in a lot of pain, they were extremely tight and sore. We went to the massage tent so they could work on his legs and he did a lot of stretching to relax his muscles. We determined later that his struggles during this marathon were probably caused by donating plasma a few days earlier. He didn’t give his body enough time to replenish fluids.

Nana and Gramps came to cheer you on for your 1k race.
 
This is your 3rd year and still going strong.

You told Nana and I, “I made it and the race didn’t kill me.” We are so proud of you for running the race.

Once Dad recovered he said, “I have to redeem my time and I will be doing another Marathon next year.”
 
Way to go boys!