Pocatello Part 2 - Night Before, Marathon, and Temple Square

Two weeks before the marathon, we had what was supposed to be our last supper with Sam and Tatum before their big move to Shanghai.  (Sam will be working there for three years until Shanghai Disneyland opens.)  We found out that they were going to be in Idaho visiting Sam's family the weekend of the race.  Jim asked Sam if he wanted to run the marathon with him.  Sam said, "Yeah, I think maybe I do."  He went on a five-mile run a day or two later and felt pretty good, so he registered.  So without any training except a handful of runs over the two-week period before the race, and with an 11-miler being his longest pre-race run, Sam joined Jim in the marathon.  I loved that he did that.  It seemed like something Jim or I would do. 

 

So Friday evening, after Bear World and Idaho Falls, we hurried back to our hotel to meet Sam and Tatum and their kids, who were driving up from Provo.  We snuck in a quick swim in the pool before the official pasta dinner. 

 

 

Carbo loading:

 

 

Actually Dolly was not particularly interested in eating that night and started losing it pretty quickly.  I tried to take a team photo, but she did not cooperate: 

 

Tess, Sam, Tatum, Rue (on Tatum's lap), Jim, Dolly

 

There was a speaker at the dinner - a super marathoner who hasn't let a brain tumor slow him down and has run marathons pushing his daughter in a stroller.  I had to leave shortly into his talk to take Dolly back to our room and get her to bed in the tub. 

 

Jim arose about 4:45 Saturday morning.  This is my only pre-race shot of him, eating an orange:

This year's race shirts were not an ideal color.

Sam and Tatum stayed the night at Sam's parents' house in Rexburg.  Sam met Jim in the lobby of our hotel so they could ride the bus to the starting point together.  They chatted up the guest speaker (from the pasta dinner) in the lobby and sat next to him on the bus. 

Jim decided a couple months ago to give up on qualifying for the Boston marathon, and he eased up a bit on his training once time was no longer a concern.  His revised goal was to finish in 3 hours 45 minutes.  We figured out about when he would be at the three spots recommended for spectators.  I was nervous about finding each spot and getting there in time.  I had to wake Dolly (see photo of her dead asleep in Part 1 post), and we rushed down to the first spectator spot around mile 15.  As we hurried to the car, Dolly said, "Buh-bye, Snort!" to this thing, which was parked next to us:

 

(In Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman, the baby bird sees a "big thing" like this.  He asks if the big thing is his mother.  The big thing says, "Snort!"  The baby bird says, "Oh, no!  You are not my mother.  You are a scary Snort!"  So now Dolly calls these types of vehicles "Snorts.")

 

We found the first spectator spot without a problem and in plenty of time.  Jim came along right on schedule.  I coached Dolly to cheer, "Go, Daddy!"  When the time came, however, she was totally mute, even when Jim stopped and talked to us.  After he ran on, Dolly and I drove north a few miles and parked near a high school to watch for him again.  Tatum met us there.  I started getting worried that we hadn't gotten there quickly enough and that Jim had already passed.  Turns out he had slowed down to go up a big hill, and we got to see him again after all. 

 

Then it was on to the finish line.  As we waited, Dolly kept busy by dropping her bag of Goldfish on the ground and then eating all the crackers off the road.  Jim looked great coming down the final stretch.  We (I) cheered vigorously as he went by.  This was maybe 75 feet before the finish line:

 

He totally nailed it, finishing in under 3 hours 43 minutes (an average of about 8 1/2-minute miles).  Dolly gave him good loves:

We chatted for a bit here . . .

. . . and then staked out a place near the finish line to watch for Samuelson.  He gave some high fives as he went by:

We couldn't believe how well Sam did without training.  He was aiming for 12-minute miles.  He finished in 4 hours 20 minutes (an average of about 9 minutes 50 seconds per mile) and wasn't even hurt afterward.  We were incredibly proud of our runners:

The dark spots on Jim's shirt are grease stains from the Vaseline he put on his sensitive
areas to prevent chafing.  Just one of the unpleasant aspects of marathon running.

Family phote:

While the boys went to get their free grub, Tatum and I tried to make Ever and Rue love each other.  Ever gave Rue's back some lengthy hugs, but I didn't get very good pictures:

 

Sam saw a couple of guys he knew from high school.  They are apparently super-obsessed with running (like they do races every weekend) and were all pumped to qualify for the Boston this time.  One of them had two kids in t-shirts that said "Boston or Bust -  3:10."  (3:10 was his qualifying time.)  He missed that qualifying time by 15 minutes; the other guy missed it by four minutes.  It was really sad.  I was so glad Jim wasn't trying to qualify this time around because it turns a fun experience into a totally disappointing one. 

 

Sam and Tatum had to head back to Rexburg to spend time with family, so we drove straight back to Salt Lake, where we were staying for the night.  We weren't too far from SLC when we smelled a pooper.  Jim stopped at a gas station, and I got Dolly out to change her.  I didn't notice it at first.  Then I felt it.  A large amount of poop on my right arm, which was holding Dolly.  Poop on my right leg, as well as my shorts and unders.  Poop on my left arm.  It was really bad.  I set Dolly down barefoot on the gas station ground, and I stood frozen until Jim got the worst of it off me with baby wipes.  We got Dolly, the car seat, and her books cleaned up as well as we could.  Her clothes and most of the books didn't make it, which was really sad.  When we checked into one of the fanciest hotels we've ever stayed in, Jim was unshowered/unchanged since the marathon.  Dolly was in a diaper only.  I wasn't looking so hot myself.  We may have been the trashiest guests they've ever had. 

 

Showers all around were the first order of business.  While we waited for Jim to finish, Dolly posed with her Goldfish:

 

 

Nice room, eh?  The bathroom was huge.  Could've fit several cribs in there.  No bathtub bed necessary for Dolly at this place.

 

We decided to go to a fancy pizza place for dinner because Dolly's generally a big fan of pizza.  We got a margherita pizza, and she refused to eat it.  It had a different flavor than she's used to and had that burned-on-purpose syndrome.  So that was sad.  We got her some fast food after we finished at the pizza place. 

 

After dinner we walked around Temple Square.  Dolly loves making Jim run and then running after him.  Poor Jim, who was rather achy, played along and was rewarded with a sweet hug when she caught him:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We parked at City Creek Center and had to take this gigantic set of stairs to get back down into the mall from Temple Square.  I had a good laugh at Jim's expense.  He was in so much pain:

 

 

I would've liked to spend more time at Temple Square, but it was getting late for the wee one. 

 

We flew out the next morning.  Had breakfast at the airport, and returned to a heat wave in CA. 

This was such a fun little family vacation.  Jim wants to run more marathons, so maybe we'll have more getaways like this. 

 

Postscript / confession time: 

 

While we waited for the shuttle to our car, Dolly wanted to get in her car seat.  Does she look too big? 

 

 

She outgrew this infant car seat many months ago.  I got a new seat for my car, but Jim kept using this seat in his car.  This trip made clear how incredibly unsafe it was.  The shoulder straps were way below her shoulders.  Her head was above the top of the car seat and rested against the hard top.  To make matters worse, the seatbelt in the rental car wouldn't lock, and we didn't take the little doohickey you're supposed to use for that.  So at one point, Dolly was kind of crying out for us.  We turned around and saw that her seat had completely tipped over.  We are possibly the most negligent parents ever.  I am so glad we didn't have an accident!  I did some research and bought another car seat as soon as we got home.  Dolly's safe now.