Soldier Marathon

For the better part of a year, Wesley's been talking about running the Soldier Marathon.  He's run several half-marathons now, and this has been on his bucket list for some time.  The Soldier Marathon begins at the National Infantry Museum and takes place on Ft. Benning, has a great race reputation, and goes through parts of Georgia and Alabama along the Chattahoochee River.  In other words, it's a hometown race!

Friday night before the race, getting all registered!

(Sidenote:  If you've never been to the Infantry Museum on Ft. Benning, it's beautiful!)

Landy was so excited for his Daddy!

Countdown to race time!  Wesley trained some with Mallory over the past several months.

The race always takes place on Veterans Day weekend.  The whole thing was beautiful to watch.  There were so many military spouses, family, friends, and people of all ages who run.

The Army has a huge presence in putting on this race (there's also a half, 5k, and kids marathons that take place).  Soldiers line the way at the beginning of the race, drill sergeants are at mile 3 "encouraging" runners as they have to run up a huge hill, and they are at the finish line as well.

And they're off!

Go, Wesle, go!

This was at about mile 1.  (Mallory was ahead of the group she started with, and caught me off-guard, so I didn't get a picture of her here!)

My dad followed the race all morning and was able to catch Wesley and Mallory at several locations.  After seeing them pass at mile 1, I hopped in my car and drove about 40 minutes to Eli's soccer game.  I ended up just missing him at other locations.  Wesley had a great, speedy pace (and a parade in town was complicating things) and was ahead of schedule.

He kept about an 8:45 pace until about mile 19 when he began to badly cramp.  That significantly slowed him down and caused him to miss his goal of under 4 hours, but we couldn't be prouder!

Aunt Katie, Nana, and Puddin all came for the weekend to cheer and support Wesley (and help me juggle the kids)!  This weekend wouldn't have been possible without them.

Landon boy preferred to chew on his sign.

Wesley and his race buddy, Raymond.  They met around mile 23, were both cramping badly, and were able to encourage each other to the end.

So, so, so proud of him!

Official race time - 4:28:44.

Two awesome people right here!

David and Abigail finishing it out with Mallory!

One of the awesome things about this race, is that you have the option of running in honor/memory of a soldier.  If you don't personally know of a soldier, there is even a table at registration where you can pick out a soldier to run for.  Mallory and Wesley both ran for people David served with during his time in the Army.

Wesley ran for Pvt. John Henderson, killed in action on August 4, 2005.  Without going into too many of the details, John died two strikers in front of David in Iraq.  We didn't stay around the finish line too long because we were headed to Auburn (thought now we wish we would have a little longer), but David had the honor of meeting John's father after the race.  An incredible moment for everyone!

This race has been such a big thing in the life of our family over the past five months as Wesley has been training for it.  I'm so proud of my husband!  The end/finish line was so emotional for me.  It was incredible to watch people finish the race.  The military presence and reminder of those who had sacrificed for freedom was so visible.

Happy Veterans Day!

There is no greater love than to lay down ones life for a friend.

John 15:13