July, part 2

I decided to split July into two parts because I thought this story deserved its own post!

Ben has always wanted to run a marathon by the time he was 30 and back in July he accomplished that goal! We knew we were going to be in Utah near the end of the month anyway so we moved our trip up by a couple of days and he registered for the Days of  '47 marathon held on July 24th. By the way, we found out later that this is one of the hardest marathons in the country because of the altitude, hills and heat, and apparently it's crazy to do as your first marathon. Information that would have been useful beforehand...

We were so excited to go and support Ben and Kiara loved that her BFF Grandma came to join in the fun.

Boston's becoming a big fan of Grandma as well.

 These 2 were such good sports while we waited.

We ended up waiting over 2 hours for Ben to cross that finish line and I stood poised with my camera ready that whole time. Then, just seconds before Ben rounded the final corner, a stupid float came right in front of us so I wasn't able to stand out in the street and get a good shot of him coming up. These are the best I could do: (Ben's in the blue shirt and shorts, behind the guy in the red hat) 

You can't tell in this shot but Kiara is chasing after Ben, running her little legs right off. She caught him right before he reached the end so they crossed the finish line together! It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen! If only I had a picture... 

Ben never ceases to amaze me at how determined and focused he can be. If he says he will do something you can take it to the bank that it will happen. He is my own little superhero who doesn't feel pain or discomfort when there's a task at hand, he just powers through and gets the job done. I think this marathon was a perfect example of that. He had quite a scare around Mile 22 where he couldn't feel his hands, his vision went blurry and he ended up collapsing on the grass. Luckily people saw it happen and got him help right away. After some gatorade and runners goo (that's the technical term :)  he was able to get up and keep moving on. Despite incredible cramping from having to sit for 45 minutes he finished the race and within an hour was already talking about doing it again next year! He's totally crazy and sometimes I wonder if he's mortal like the rest of us, but he's incredible and I love him so much. I seriously hit the jackpot with my guy!