A smashing success!

So about a year ago, my husband decided he was going to run a half marathon. The training began and was going rather well.  Unfortunately, a hip injury made its presence known and in the end, he wasn't able to finish the half marathon. After spending some time in physical therapy and getting everything back in place, Kevin decided to give it another go.  Training began quite a few months back, with the goal of running a half marathon in Kentucky in May.  That race was last weekend.  We arrived in Kentucky on Friday night and went to pick up Kevin's registration packet.

Then we did a bit of shopping through the expo.

The next morning the both Kevin and his brother David, who was also running the half marathon, left at the crack of dawn to head to the Start/Finish line.  As the race came up the street, one street over from the house where David and Ann live, we decided to wait and see them pass by at between mile 6 & 7 before heading to the finish line.  The kids were excited to be waiting and watching for Kevin to come by.

(check out Peyton on the far right - he cracks me up!)

While we waited, my little guy stuck out his hand to high five the runners. Some of them even came all the way across the street to hit his hand. It was fun to watch!

Finally, Kevin came by and got his high five!

After that we took off back down the street to hop in the car and head to the finish line.

The band was playing at the corner as the runners rounded their final turn to the finish line.  The energy and excitement was all around us!

We worked our way down as close to the finish line as we could and began our wait. However, it wasn't very long before we spotted Kevin, running the final stretch!

Kevin crossed the finish line at 1 hour, 46 minutes and 11 seconds!  This was an entire 14 minutes quicker than his goal of finishing in 2 hours. He ran just over an average of an eight minute mile. I couldn't be prouder of him! (The time on the official clock doesn't match as it took him 3 minutes to cross the start line once the race began).

After Kevin crossed the finish line, we started to watch for David. We finally spotted him, not long after Kevin came by. David finished in 2 hours and 1 minute!  That's especially impressive, considering he didn't even train for this race.

Once both boys had finished, we went back to find them in the Runner Reunite Area!

After we said our congratulations, we let the boys gather their stuff and hop on their bikes to ride home.  On our way back to the car to head home as well, the kids wanted to go and see the river. It was still extremely high from the recent flooding.

Finally, we arrived home and spent the remainder of the day relaxing outside in the perfect weather and watching the last of the marathoners run past the house at mile marker 20.  Peyton sang to everyone for about a half and hour and I snuck in a quick cousins photo!

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend spent with family and witnessing an incredible accomplishment by my husband, who worked so hard to get there! Congratulations, Babe!  We love you!