Bragging rights

Since Craig is too modest to brag about his marathon of an achievement Sunday, I will.

The marathon scene is nothing new to Craig. And unfortunately, being injured during training and the actual race was nothing new either. But Sunday, his third marathon and his first attempt at the one in Wichita, was different.

Throughout the 18 weeks of training, Craig was plagued with one injury or another ... or a whole bunch at once. I'm pretty sure his IT band was causing him issues before he ever started. In fact, I think he waited to register up until the last minute to see if his IT band was up for the challenge. Then there was the calf ... make that two calves that tightened up several weeks ago. The achilles. The groin. And don't forget the shoulder (not actually caused by running, but it counts.). While all of this was bad enough, the poor guy caught Park's cold three days before the race. The guy had it bad. But he still ran.

So, with kinesio tape covering his outer and upper thigh, calves and ankles, and compression socks for extra support, Craig set out to conquer 26.2 miles on Sunday with two goals in mind (one he would talk about - 4 hours - and another he kept to himself).

At the starting line, with 4,600 other runners, Craig joined up with a pace group for the first time to see if he could achieve the "secret" goal of 3:45. Oh, the stories he had from that ... like one of the pacers dropping out of the group at mile 6. Thank goodness there was a back-up. But he stayed with the group, and Craig's fan club (Park, grandpa Sam, grandma Barbie and I) were thrilled to see him looking strong along the way.

While running a marathon is no easy feat, being a spectator has it's own challenges, too. There's the stress of making sure you get to the next viewing point before the runner, meandering around closed roads and holding up signs. We had lots of fun (and were as exhausted as Craig afterward)!

In the end, the pain and exhaustion was worth it. I couldn't have been more proud of the two guys in my life -- Craig for achieving a huge challenge with the odds stacked against him and Park for admiring his daddy so much that he told me he wanted to run a race, too.

For those of you keeping track, Craig finished just a few minutes later than his public goal at 4:07. Yes, he's disappointed. Really disappointed. But he has nothing to be down about. He had his personal best and beat the odds. And not only was he walking upright afterwards, he got a bitchin' blood blister to show off with his medal.

Congratulations, Craig! We couldn't be prouder of you.

Carrie