We stayed at a Holiday Inn right on the beach and even had a direct ocean front room with a sliding door that led straight out to the beach and boardwalk!
Saturday was the Children's Marathon, kids 5 and under get to run 26.2 yards (as opposed to the marathon distance of 26.2 miles) and cross the same finish line that the big race uses! They break up the groups into age groups so the 5 years olds don't trample the 1 year olds. They even get their own t-shirt, bib numbers
and a finisher's medal when they cross the line! Avery had fun warming up:
Oh well, at least she enjoyed her finisher's medal:
Avery also enjoyed seeing the large King Neptune statue on the boardwalk:
Also on Saturday afternoon we went to visit our friend Meg (Meg and her husband Chris used to live in San Diego, and got transfered via the Navy to Norfolk). They now have a baby, Jocelyn! Avery loved seeing "baby Jocelyn!"
On Sunday we got up early and Jim got prepared to race
And luckily were only 4 blocks from the start line so we walked on down. Jim got a good-luck send-off before the race (yes that's Ronald McDonald in the background, we don't know why he's there!)
Then Colleen and Avery staked out a good spot to watch him run.
He got to see them at the start, again about the halfway mark, and finally right before the finish! Having your name on the bib number was neat, because people would yell "Go Jim!" "Come on Jim finish strong!" "I poured this cup of water just for you Jim!" It was neat having people yell your name at you to help push you through.
Jim's goal was a 3:20:00 finish and was running almost right on pace for the first 18 miles and then he got a leg cramp, but he kept running and slowed down the last 8 miles and finished at 3:38:16. Even though he was a little disapointed he didn't make his goal time, he was very happy to finish his first marathon, and still finished in the top 12% overall and the top 24% of his very tough age group (males 35-39 years old). Here are some race pics during the race, at mile 18:
A half mile from the finish:
Almost to the finish:
Here is shot Colleen got of him on the final stretch, his feet aren't even touching the ground and he has a smile on his face!
Here is waiving to Larry the Leprichan who announced all 14,000 finisher's name in that day's full and half marathon!
After the race photo with Jim's finisher's medal:
And got a photo in front of the sand castle:
Avery liked wearing daddy's finisher's hat (and she was still holding the cow bell she rang when daddy ran by!)
They had a huge finisher's party tent with a band playing and Yuengling Beer (the sponsor) and they claimed that this year they broke the record for number of kegs drank after the race (it was a St Patrick's Day theme after all, and there are priorities right??) We enjoyed two beers each and did our part!
Since Jim cut out coffee the last four days before the race he was craving one, so after we left the beach party we went straight to Starbucks for a well-deserved venti sized latte.
That evening it cooled off a lot but we still went down to a large playground and Avery enjoyed playing!
We then did a quick dinner at a taco shop and got a Margarita, not a fancy birthday dinner but with a toddler what can you do right? We all enjoyed hanging out for his birthday either way!
On Monday it was bright, sunny and warm again so we hit another beach playground:
Then we went to the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk on the way out of town.
Since we are members of the NC Zoo they have recipricol memberships with most other zoos in the country so we figured we should check it out!
We saw some of Avery's favorite animals and then we headed home. Once we got home that evening Colleen made Jim's favorite cake for his birthday: white cake with chocolate chips baked into the cake, and white icing with chocolate chips in the icing.
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