P.F. Chang's Rock 'N Roll Marathon

Saturday night we put the kids to bed early...earlier, gave them Benedryl to get them to sleep. Ellie was easy, Christian was...well, difficult as usual, but he went to sleep eventually. Chris and I stayed up only a little longer to get some things ready. I tried going to sleep but I couldn't do it...at least not well. I slept a few hours I think but still had a headache in the morning.

5am we got up, got ready and a couple things in the car before we got the kids up. When we did get the kids up this is what we found:

Can you see Christian's foot? Ellie was pretty good about getting up not too much fuss, and if I recall Christian wasn't too bad either. After we got in the car Ellie started to fuss, poor thing she hates going to sleep and hates being woken up early- like her Mommy.

We picked up Ammon, my brother-in-law, so he could drive this craziness of Phoenix that I'd be lost in, and drove out to Phoenix. Unfortunately Ammon couldn't sleep a wink the night before but he drove just fine. Chris set up our portable dvd player so Christian and Ellie could watch Over the Hedge. We dropped Chris off near the start of the race around 6:30 and headed for our first stop to cheer Chris on. The map that my Dad had given us had to be modified a bit since they pretty much closed everything off. It took a while but we were able to find a way in and got breakfast at Jack In The Box.

At our first stop we parked in a parking lot right next to a band and right there was the street of the race. Nice! Good call Ammon! We were able to see Chris at two more stops. At the last stop, 18 mile mark, Christian ran away from Ammon and me so he didn't get to see Chris that time, Ammon took him to the car and strapped him back in. At this mark, I gave Chris a marathon bar and a bottle of Multi-vitamin Emergen-C. He only took a bite of the bar and a swig of the drink and took off running again. Ammon drove us close to the end and parked where we didn't have to pay. NICE!! Ammon, Christian, Nayeli and I walked down to ASU where the finish line was and was able to see Chris finish and hear the announcer say, "Chris Runkel from Mesa". That is the first time we have ever heard is name announced at a race. The time he crossed the finish line was 3 hours and 6 mins.

Ammon said he had fun, but he propably would've had a blast if he wasn't so tired. :( Sorry so tired Ammo but thank you so much for driving!

Chris ironically had more energy than Ammon and I had after we got home. LOL Then we put the kids in their rooms for naps and Chris and I cleaned the downstairs and had our Home Teachers come over at 4pm. After they left Chris cooked up a steak and some potatoes. We got the kids up and fed, and headed to my parents house. There, we were able to look up Chris's final time- 3hrs 5 mins and 50 seconds. 11 minutes faster than last year, qualifying Chris for the Boston Marathon. He won't run it, but he likes the feeling that he qualified. By the sound of it, he plans to run next year's P.F. Chang's Marathon.