Cowtown Marathon

Adam signed up for another marathon and ran it a couple of weeks ago with his buddy Lee, well at least the first six miles of it (Lee did the half). A LOT of people were in this one, it included a half marathon, full marathon, and ultra marathon. ULTRA you say? Yeah, it adds like another FIVE miles. Let's pretend that one doesn't exist.

Adam and Lee take a selfie at the starting line.

Always be prepared.

Dafni wanted to come and cheer the guys on. We made signs so we wouldn't look like goobers just staring at everybody. It was WAY FUN. We got a lot of feedback from the runners like, "Hey, Random Stranger...that's me!"

Some other signs we took said, "The Fox Says Run!", "Smile if you peed a little" (we were too emberassed to show that one). "May the course be with you!"

We hoped to cheer for Lee too, but we missed him at the beginning and didn't know what his pace was so we never saw him along the course. Boo. Sorry Lee! We even yelled his name a few times just in case he was in the crowd.

After signing up to get notifications via text which told us where Adam was we plotted 5 checkpoints on the map based on his pace to find and cheer for him. Consequently we started recognizing the same group of runners, so we started cheering for them too. We were even able to cheer for them at the finish line. It was totally fun and emotional! I would go to a marathon just to cheer strangers on. Lee said as a runner he enjoyed being cheered, I'm glad to know it makes difference. (I worry people get annoyed by it. Hey, some people get grumpy when they're exercising.)

Dafni mentioned during the half marathon in Dallas strawberries had been passed out at one of the stations—which she thought was awesome. So I took grapes for Adam and ran with him for a tiny, TINY bit. But note, the grapes weren't awesome. Adam said they gave him dry mouth. Boo.

This was at the last checkpoint. Adam had about 5 miles of his 26.2 to go. He was hurting. I gave him a kiss, which in turn gave me a mouth full of sweat. When he took off I shouted behind him "You can do it, that's why I married you!!!" and then Dafni yelled, "That's why I would have married you!" It was funny. Adam didn't turn around, but everybody else did.

At the finish line we caught up with Lee. He'd completed the half marathon a little earlier so was there to cheer for Adam. Because we were so close to the finish line, Lee's tag continuously sent his information to the announcer. We heard, "Well done Lee from Grand Prairie!" about three times...so I count that as being there to see him finish, and he didn't hear his name when he DID finish, so it worked out!
We clapped and cheered for everyone crossing for a half an hour and then came Adam!

Here he is heading toward the finish. Password: cowtownfinish
Finish from Anna Zenk on Vimeo.

Poor Adam, his legs started cramping up right at the finish line, so he stopped moving after crossing but immediately one of the medics walked up to him and told him he had to keep going or it would get worse. Then the medic walked with Adam to get him going. I am impressed with all the "help" at these things.

Afterwards, the guys took a spit bath with wet towels we'd brought and we ate  Rodeo Goat  burgers for lunch. The boys waddled all the way there and back again.
Password:runwaddle
RunWaddle from Anna Zenk on Vimeo.

A few days later Lee texted Adam and told him "All I can think about is the marathon, I think I'm in love with you!" Bah hah! I'm glad they both enjoyed the run so much.