Donnie trained for 10 weeks for his first 20K race, the Dam to Dam, in Des Moines. The whole family went downtown to support him and my sister-in-law, Nikki, who also ran for the first time.
We underestimated the crowds (although we knew there were 9,000 runners between the 20K and 5K) and got there just in time to miss him cross this:
He was very happy with his time and looked as though he had just taken a stroll. If only he'd been a little slower, we would have seen him raise him arms as he crossed the finish line!
Before we knew he already crossed, the family was hot and tired, but excited to see both finish. Well, except the kids. They were just hot and tired.
But Kiefer was happy when he got to play with Daddy's medal.
And Reagan helped Daddy celebrate, too.
And then he looked for Aunt Nikki (whom we also missed finish! We are poor spectators!)
And as a special post-race treat? Gatorade and oyster shooters. Mmm. Mmm. Good. 
(Seriously, I'm so proud of Donnie. I wasn't sure about only giving himself 10 weeks- from 2 miles to 12+miles. But he did it and did it better than even I thought he would. We decided before that he would train for this one and then I would train for one in the fall, but now he thinks he wants to train for a full marathon in the fall. The endorphins have had to have worn off from Saturday by now, so I think he's serious. Hmmm...)
1 comment:
Andi, are you totally kidding me! My two oldest ran that race WE WERE THERE! Josh ran it in 1:30 9th place in his division, Sammi ran it in 1:50 6th place in her division! Way cool! I ran last year and it was a huge rush to finish, I actually had to talk myself down from hyperventallating two blocks before the finish line! Headlines was all I could see "20K Runner Hypervenalates 30 feet from Finishing the biggest race of her life" . I started training in Oct prior to running. Training started very slow...how the heck could I even begin to think I could do it! I had a hard time running a block at the beginning and finished a 12.485 mile race-wowsers! Way to go Donnie! 10 weeks? How did you do it?
Man, I thought about calling Tric, but no, didn't get it done! It totally figures, gotta be my luck! I would have ran it this year but work took precidence over running. As we were spectators on the sidelines I was almost in tears thinking...I should be out there, why did I let my JOB keep me from doing something I loved doing...will never know, silly I guess! Glad you were in Iowa, SAD I missed YOU and your FAMILY!!!!
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