Mike JUST finished the marathon with a finish time of 3:28:33. Benjamin and I and I'm sure many of our loyal readers tracked his time online all morning. We also watched the broadcast of the 2 elite races - very cool. Benjamin was trying to look for Mike very hard and we think we may have seen him, but then I realized that I don't even know what he is wearing!!! I'm sure he'll call later today with details and will be home Tuesday night with pictures. Thanks everyone for your encouragement and support - he did great!
This weekend we all participated in the Dr. Steven Fetzer Memorial 20k race here in Rochester. Mike ran the race as part of his training for Boston (in ONE week!) and Benjamin and I volunteered at a water stop. Unfortunately, even though it is mid-April, the weather is still behaving as though it is winter. The high for Saturday was 38 and there was a strong wind out of the north with a snow/sleet mixture all day. Basically, it was miserable. We knew this going into the day, but we were all bound and determined to overcome the weather! Benjamin and I bundled up and headed out to the waterstop at about 8:45am. By 8:50am Benjamin had submerged his only fleece mittens into a puddle and was crying because his hands were cold. We stuck it out for a while though and were able to see Mike run by twice. It was fun to see all of the familiar faces we know running by as well. After Mike went by at mile 6, we headed back to the (warm) school where the runners would all meet after finishing. Mike ran the race slower to conserve himself for his upcoming marathon and came in 50th place overall.
Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt came down to Rochester for a while on Saturday and it was nice to see them. On Sunday we stayed home all morning and afternoon and only left the house to go to dinner with the Olsons at the new Sushi Itto (LOVE it!) in town. Then we headed over to Lowe's where we found our new vanity for the upstairs bathroom. We have many home improvement projects coming up and remodeling the bathroom is one of them. We are also residing the entire house and plan to update more of the front yard landscaping. Ahhh, spring cleaning fever has hit our house!!
Mike leaves for Boston on Sunday. We will miss him, but are looking forward to watching the race live on TV. For those of you who want to catch it, it will be broadcast live on Versus at 8:30am CT and replayed at 2:30pm CT. We wish Mike and all of the other runners from Rochester luck on the big race!!!
Flickr now allows you to post videos, so this is our first addition:
Both Mike and I had the extreme pleasure of helping with the planning for a visit by Kathrine Switzer to Mayo and the Running Room this week. She came and spoke at Mayo Clinic Monday night where Mike and I helped to sell her book. Mike even was able to go to dinner with her and a few of my colleagues (I was relieving the babysitter). Then Tuesday morning Mike led a run with her from the Running Room.
If you don't know who Kathrine is, she is the first female to ever enter and run the Boston Marathon. She ran it back in 1967 before women were officially allowed to run in the race and at a time when it was believed that women were not capable of running more than 200 meters (2 laps around the track). She was also instrumental in getting the women's marathon recognized as an Olympic sport (though it took a while -- the first time women ran it was at the 1984 Olympics). Kathrine is a spitfire and was incredibly entertaining and very gracious to us for helping her out. Mike had an awesome time sharing his running story with her and just talking the talk with a fellow marathoner. It was a great experience!
We are back from an exciting adventure in Boston and abroad. Hopefully all of our faithful readers now know that Mike finished the race with an awesome time (3 hours, 26 minutes and 21 seconds)!! Unfortunately, the weather in the northeast US decided to turn for the worse the day before the race, so he was forced to run (and we were forced to spectate) in less than ideal conditions. It was somewhere in the lower 40's, rainy and REALLY windy. When we greeted Mike after the finish line, we could hardly even stand upright with the forceful wind. It was crazy. We were blessed to have both sets of our parents and two of Mike's brothers along for our adventure. To celebrate Mike's achievement, we dined at Legal Seafoods on some tasty seafood and champagne.
After spending three nights in Boston for the race, the three of us took a side trip out to Cape Cod. Lucky for us, the lovely weather continued and as we were told, the area experienced one of the worst April storms ever. However, we made the best of the situation and enjoyed ourselves regardless. We ate lots of seafood, drove to the tip of the cape (Provincetown) and took in all of the amazing summer houses throughout all of the quaint towns. Later we drove back toward Boston and stopped in Plymouth to see the rock and the Mayflower II. The weather improved and the sun was shining that day. Benjamin loved seeing all of the boats! Also, I think his new favorite animal is a "Lobfer (lobster)." He is still talking about them! Back in Boston we toured the Samuel Adams Brewery and visited Harvard University and the surrounding area. Of course, after we left Boston, their weather jumped up into summer-like temperatures. Ah well, Murphy's Law, I guess (thanks MOM).
I have posted lots of pictures from our trip on our photo website (you can see some samples througout this posting). And I also have added a couple of videos to our YouTube account.
This picture is of some ads for the marathon that are apparently up all over Boston right now. I wanted to post this here to first of all get everyone excited for what is to be the biggest race of Mike's life and secondly to encourage Mike to keep up his excitement!! It can be easy to focus on the pain of training or the stress affiliated with planning for the race but when it comes down to it, the most important thing is that he is accomplishing a life's dream and a goal that most people will never reach. Back in 2005 he was defeated by a short 48 seconds while trying to qualify for this race. He overcame his own demons and came back to Chicago in 2006 to finally achieve his goal. Now the only thing he has left to do is to taste the sweet feeling of finishing the most elite marathon in the world.
Good luck Mike!
***Update*** For the third year, cable network Versus (channel 35 in Rochester) will provide complete, live, national Boston Marathon coverage from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. CT. A same-day, encore presentation of the Versus telecast will air from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. CT.
