Sunday, November 16, 2008

HE DID IT!!!!

Today is one of my proudest days ever. Brian ran the San Antonio Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon- 13.1 miles in 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 19 seconds. Brian left the house this morning at 5:20. The girls and I left at 6:20 and it was 38 degrees. I talked to Brian a few times and knew he was cold and anxious. The girls and I met up with our friend Gerald whose wife Kentonine was running the race also. We waited at the 2 Mile Marker and we finally caught our first glimpse.

After hearing, "Go Daddy Go," he saw us.
USAA did a lottery and sponsored some employees and paid their marathon fees and gave them a shirt. Can you tell he likes attention?
We hurried up and went to the 8 mile marker and then did potty breaks and Gerald got a snack. We then realized he had picked up his pace and almost missed him- you can see the 8 mile marker in the background.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of him ever. How does a man who has run 8 miles look this good? Even after all this, the daddy he is came out and he was waving to Landree.

After we saw Kentonine race by, we hoofed it to the finish line. And I mean hoofed it because at one point we were running. We saw Brian less than one hundred feet from the finish line here.

We then began the search to find him. Gerald kept Landree and Peyton and I went to find him. I of course was so excited that I literally cried all the way to him. Bless is heart he was tired and cold. He walked around with the metal blankets they were passing out. Peyton kept calling it his cape.
Here are our two runners.

Brian started his weight loss story August of 2007 and today was maybe not his final chapter but one of the last ones.

And for the first time ever since I became a Mom, I had a camera in my hands for almost 3 hours with my children and never took a picture of them. Today was all about Daddy.

4 comments:

HaleyW said...

CONGRATULATIONS, Brian!!! The Willard family is so incredibly proud of you!!!

Tracy said...

That post gave me chills...CONGRATULATIONS!!!

btschulze said...

AWESOME!!!! There's just no other words for it but AWESOME!

That's the type of inspiration we all need!!!

Anonymous said...

Brian, Congratulations, You are a true examaple of where Determination and Hard work can take you.