The Ducote Family: Santa Rosa Marathon

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Santa Rosa Marathon

On August 23rd, Rich ran in the Santa Rosa marathon in northern California. Julia and I bought tickets at the last minute (seriously, 2 nights before!) to be there to support him and cheer him on. I kept going back and forth but I just couldn't imagine not being there and I am SO glad that we went because he had the race of a lifetime and am so proud to say that he is a Boston qualifier!! The qualifying time for his age group was 3:15 and he ran the race in 3:13:26 (7:21 minute per mile) so we are headed to Boston in April of 2016!! He is awesome!

We flew in Saturday afternoon and Rich picked us up at the San Francisco airport (he was already in the area for work) and then we took the beautiful almost 2 hour drive to Santa Rosa. We drove straight to the race expo which was at a winery which is definitely the best race expo location that I have ever been to!

After getting his packet and information, we headed to the hotel to check in and then went to find a restaurant. Santa Rosa had a few quaint streets with cute restaurants but I wasn't really impressed with the rest of the city; however, we had a good meal and Julia even slept for part of it so it was a nice semi-date night. She was easy peasy at dinner though-as long as this girl is fed she is happy and it always seems like such a breeze when you only have one kid with you (especially with both adults which honestly I don't think has ever happened before so it was fun!)

After dinner we went back to the hotel to help Rich get ready for the morning and try to get this little one to sleep but since she had no interest in sleeping early in the pack and play she hung out with us and then slept right in the middle of us in the bed for the night. Thankfully, she slept great and stayed sleeping even through the 4:30 a.m. wake up call for race day!

Julia bounced back and forth between the ergo and the stroller and was a great cheerleader when she wasn't sleeping. She was super easy and such a great traveller. Sweet baby girl!

We were able to see Rich four different times during the race-at the beginning, mile 2, mile 25 1/4 and right before the finish line. It was a little stressful towards the end-Laura was tracking him online at home and the time that the online tracker had for him at mile 20 was about 45 seconds behind where he was supposed to be so I was a nervous wreck for the last 20 or so minutes. It was a huge relief when we saw him right after the 25 mile mark and he was only about 30 seconds behind the 3:13 pace group-he looked exhausted but at that point he dug deep and finished strong. I am SO glad that we were there and to celebrate his huge accomplishment.

Rich dedicated the race to our friend, Will Byers, who was diagnosed with Sanfilippo Syndrome in March of this year. Sanfilippo Syndrome is a rare, genetic, terminal and currently incurable disease. Will is currently in a clinical trial and the foundation is less than $200,000 shy of their $2 million dollar goal for funding for a drug to stop this horrible disease. For more information please visit: www.curesff.org

Rich created an incredible video for Will that documents his training efforts and conversations with Will along the way. I won't include the video here since I'll probably forget to take it out before I turn the blog into a book at the end of the year but if you're on Facebook keep your eye out for it later this month.

Meanwhile, back in southern California, Joseph and Ella were having a blast with Nani and Poppa. We told them that I had to go to a "borrrrinnnng meeting" so they wouldn't be upset that I was meeting Daddy (since he had been in Texas for the past two weeks) and that Julia had to come with me since she's so little. All weekend long Ella would say, "Ma ma at bor bor mee mee" which was her version of "Mama at boring meeting!" Nani and Poppa said that they were great and that everyone had a lot of fun which I don't doubt at all!

Making tents by 8:00 a.m.