The Finish Line!!!

In August, Bo started training for a half-marathon to be ran on Thanksgiving morning. After many long weeks of training, the race was run and here are a few of the pictures from his amazing accomplishment.

Before I post these pictures though, I have a few thoughts of my own to share about Bo's big run. First...it was so awesome to be at the finish line waiting to see Bo run by us and finish his first race. All of us were there to greet him...the kids, his mom and dad, Jenny, and even Stefan got to come and represent the Blum family on a blustery 39 degree morning. We brought our cow bells to cheer him on and it really was such a cool thing to witness so many people finishing up a 13 mile run. Speaking of 13 miles, I am wondering how many of you ACTUALLY COMPREHEND how far 13 miles really is. The night before the race, Bo and Nate (his running buddy) stayed in a hotel to avoid traffic and getting up any earlier than needed the day of the race. After the race was over, the 2 of them piled back in to my car and we headed back towards the hotel to get Nate's car. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why they stayed out past Spaghetti Junction (where I-85 meets I-285) when the race was downtown. It didn't seem to make sense that they stayed so far away. It wasn't until Bo's dad made a comment about how much more convenient it was to stay here than at home when Nate said that the start line was only 2 miles from their hotel. By this time we had been driving for a good 20 minutes and I was floored at what that meant. Bo LITERALLY ran the entire length of the connector from north of Spaghetti Junction all the way to Turner Field where the finish line was. And my new word for things this astounding is that this distance is RIDONCULOUS!!!! I mean seriously...who in the world voluntarily runs that much; that far. And, this was the half-marathon. There are idiots out there who started at Turner Field, ran north to Bo's start line and then turned around to head back to Turner Field for the full-marathon. A disease...I swear!!! And last, I might share that the pictures you are about to see of Bo actually running the marathon are not mine. Thankfully, my super brother in law and father in law were able to grab pictures of Bo finishing the marathon. And, it wasn't because my camera wasn't ready. Picture this...Bonnie is patiently waiting and looking for Bo from about 8:15 AM on. The race started at 7:00 and Bo thought he would finish in about 2 hours. But, I thought with all the excitement that he might come in a little under 2 hours. To avoid missing him, I am intently watching all the runners come through the finish line starting about 8:15. And, just as an aside...the winner of the half-marathon finished in 1 hour, 9 minutes. That's a 4 minute mile for 13 miles, folks!!! During my waiting time, I am trying to keep the kids entertained and warm and keep my camera in focus on the road so that the pictures aren't blurry. I have changed the setting to "burst" so that I get lots of pictures of Bo running and we can pick from the best to put on the blog. I keep looking at the official clock and it says 2 hours...2 hours, 3 minutes, 2 hours 5 minutes...and I'm still looking. Now, Bo was under strict orders that he had to finish this race because there was no way I was hauling my rear end 13 miles back the race course to find him. So, at 2 hours and 9 minutes we spot him coming over the top of the hill with the Olympic Rings and Torch in the background...the perfect picture and my camera is on him and focused. He sees us. Runs up to us. Give the kids and all of us high fives. He's in my camera lens and I can see him. He crosses the line and the race is over. At that moment it dawns on me that I was so excited to actually find him in the mass of people and so proud of him for doing something he worked so hard at that I never finished pushing the shutter button on the camera after I had pushed it half way to focus it. Really??? Seriously??? I had come all this way and waited all this time to get the perfect picture of his first race and I got NOTHING!!!!! Thankfully Stefan and Dad had gotten some great shots and I have those to share on this blog.

Congratulations on your run honey!!! We are all so proud of you!!! Be sure to check out the shutterfly site for the complete set of pictures.
http://therealjacksonfive.shutterfly.com/