The Ducote Family: Marathon Man!

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Marathon Man!

It's so hard to believe that June is here and that the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon is upon us. Rich's training for the race began in December so the past 6 months have been filled with a lot of long runs and a lot of anticipation leading up to this day, especially after his race in San Jose last August when his time of 3:13 for the marathon qualified him for the Boston marathon; however, due to such a large number of entries he was not admitted. Needless to say, his training regimen was even more intense this time around and he was extremely focused on knocking off some time to guarantee himself a spot for Boston 2017.

I'm pretty sure that he has the best cheerleaders ever! One of Julia's first words was "run" because she would wake up in the morning and Rich often would bring her in to bed with me to snuggle as he left for his morning run and I'd ask her where he was going and she learned quickly to say "run!" She also will say, "O Da da O" (go Dada go) with a hand movement of pumping her arm-too cute! Ella was excited to receive this hand me down uniform from Abby Martin just in time for his race and wore it around the house the entire day before his race and wore it on the actual race day! She was so proud!

I have to laugh at the 3 empty gatorade bottles in the background of this picture- Rich ensuring that he was well hydrated for the race!

On race day, Rich left the house before 4 a.m. but the kids and I were able to sleep until a little after 6 and then headed down to a point where we could see him at mile 8 as well as mile 13. The Ozecks and Bri met us there which was so fun! Bubs brought his fun wig which kept the kids entertained while we were waiting for him.

And, the Ozecks made this awesome sign!! Too funny!

He was looking strong at both mile 8 and 13 and was right on track pace wise (which was at 6:53!!!)

The Ozecks followed us downtown to catch him at the finish which was awesome to have them there to support him but also a HUGE help since the finish was extremely crowded. We were able to park in a Navy parking lot close to the end and then I threw Julia on my back and we hustled to the finish line. Dave and Laura took their time with the rest of the kids-I don't think I would have been able to see him if I had all three kids with me so I am so appreciative that they were there to help!

Here he is about 100 yards away from the finish! He finished in 3:09:15 which ended up being an average pace of 7:14 (the big hill at mile 21 slowed him down and he had a tough time recovering from it for the last 5 miles) but he is pretty positive that this time will guarantee him a spot in Boston since it is more than 5 minutes under his qualifying time! We are all so proud of him!!!