Last year was the year of my first marathon. My sister-in-law and I teamed up to run the Chicago Marathon for World Vision. I had run a few miles at a time before we started training-but that was it. Wow! It took some serious dedication. It was great! By the end of summer, we were running 20 miles with little problems. Not any fast pace-but okay for beginners. We were so prepared and trained. Ran through the heat of summer, knew all the great running spots...Well, luck hasn't always been on my side... Twenty miles into the marathon-it was canceled. Stopped! One of the only marathons to be called off in the middle-and that was the one we chose to run! 
Well, we did atleast get a medal. We were in a small group of people who were redirected and ran through the finish line from the wrong direction. I don't think they knew what to do with our group-we were past the half marathon point but not close enough to the finish to let us continue without risk. Anyway, we do have some great memories. Splashing in fountains that we would normally not let our kids near, refilling our bottles from garden hoses, getting upset about silly things (like the lack of bananas and what some of the people were wearing), singing,etc., etc. We ran at a slow pace and talked the whole time-we decided we were oblivious to the chaos surrounding us. When we got to the finish it was like a war zone. First aid tents and ambulances, announcements of "runner down"....I guess we should just be thankful that we were both okay.
I think my oldest son was getting a little hot and bored. (along with my little niece) Atleast the 7 year olds were happy!
