Daddy's First Marathon

Good News: MY DADDY ROCKS!!!!  Bad news: He wasn't able to finish all 26.5 miles of his first marathon. 

We left this morning about 5:30 am.  Mommy and Daddy woke me up a little before that and let me go in my pajamas.  it was about 42 degrees outside.  We got there and Daddy signed in.  The race started just after sunrise at 7:00.  It started kinda in the middle (map Here), and Daddy ran North into Horsetooth Mountain Open Space for about 5 miles, then back to the Blue Sky Trailhead.  Through the trailhead and then south down the Blue Sky trail and into Devil's Backbone.  These trails are ones that Daddy really likes to Mountain Bike on, and here he was running a Marathon on them!!  Mommy told me that the route has over 3,000 ft of elevation gain/loss, which means a lot of hills for Daddy.

So anyways, we were there at the trailhead to watch Daddy start.  Then we waited around until he came through on his way south.  He came through at about 9:00, still pretty good time considering the majority of elevation change was in that first 10 miles.  He told us later that his knees were hurting him by this point already.  When he got to the Indian Summer South aid station he tried to get some Motrin for his knees, but no one had any.  He knew at this point that it was not going to be easy to get around the Devil's Backbone Section of the route - Laughing Horse Loop is rated as a Difficult Trail (one of only 2 in the entire Larimer County Parks System).  By the time he got back to that station on his way north again, he was walking and hobbling pretty bad.  He thought he had missed the cutoff for that checkpoint and wouldn't be able to finish, but he made it by 1 minute!!  Yay Daddy!!  So he iced his knees some, rested, and headed out again.  But soon his right knee said "No MORE - I'm all Done!!"  Poor Daddy, he had to hobble back to the aid station and call it quits.  Thankfully, one of Mommy's Ranger Friends was there and he called Mommy to say that Daddy was coming back in a car, so that we didn't have to keep watching for him and worrying.  Daddy was so disappointed in himself, but Mommy and I reassured him that he did a great job and we were so proud of him!!!  Overall, he still made it over 20 miles, and up until he turned back he was still within the time frame to finish.  He said he felt good enough to finish, endurance-wise, and everything else - it's just that his knees couldn't take the battering. 

So, Mommy and I are going to cheer him on next year!!!  He still wants to run the Colorado Marathon (which starts in the Poudre Canyon and runs downhill the whole way into Fort Collins) next May, and do this one again so he can accomplish it.  He's even thinking about getting a friend (experienced marathon and ultra-marathon runner) to run the Blue Sky route again this year with him.  Mommy and I both think he can do it, he just needs to give his knees a good rest before he tries it again.  That's what Daddy thinks happened, he worked them too hard two weeks ago on his 20 mile training run, and didn't give them enough time to recuperate before doing another big tough run.

So Good Job Daddy!!! We are so proud of you!!!  You are the Best!!  And We Love YOU!!!
(Sorry there's no pictures we're having trouble uploading them!)