Marathon Maniac

This weekend Julie's parents were in town in time to see her run the first marathon she's ever done. It's been a goal of hers for a long time -- since highschool. She signed up for the Columbia River marathon and started training around June. A lot of marathons are on Sunday so it was fortunate to find one that not only was on a Saturday but was close to Richland, WA where her older brother John lives.
After they started, Kaleb and I headed south a few miles to the nearest McDonalds for breakfast. I'm eating breakfast at McDonalds while Julie is running a marathon(yin and yang). After 6 pancakes and 2 sausages, Kaleb and I raced back to mile marker #9 in time to see Julie. Well, I saw her while Kaleb slept. So far so good. There were quite a few people in the lead, but most of them turned out to be doing the half-marathon. We saw her again at mile marker 16 (and 18 since it looped back). Still looking very good and with the half-marathoners gone there weren't many people in front of her with the exception of a few guys and at least 2 other women. After she ran by with 8 miles to go we took off to meet her at the finish line. By this time, Kaleb awoke from his two hour nap. After a quick diaper change and a little something to eat I packed him in the baby bjorn and headed off to wait for Julie at the finish line.
The finish line was set at the end of a small side-road that T'd off the main road on which the runners would pass once before looping back and taking the side road. I walked to the corner of the T but didn't see anybody coming. Based on Julie's pace I expected to see her in 20 mins and was about to walk down the main road when I heard Julie yell my name from behind. I whirled around surprised, but in time to see her wave and smile before rounding the corner and shooting off to the finish line. I fumbled around with the video camera and had it up in time to capture the final few seconds as she crossed the finish line. Final time: 3:33:22. Most people slow down towards the end, but apparently Julie sped up ... a lot. :) As it turns out, she was the first woman to cross the finish line and finished in 3rd place overall (just check the standings (pdf)). Pretty impressive for her first marathon. The guy who came in first had dibs on the prizes and took home a 32" flat screen TV. Julie had second choice and awarded me with a new set of power tools for all my hard work and support. :)