My Dad is a Marathoner

After months of training, last weekend was the big one! Craig ran the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC on October 25, 2009. He did AWESOME! and finished in 3 hours, 51 minutes. We met up with the Braidwoods and with our friend Tara to watch the runners and cheer Craig on.

Wade was a trooper through the whole trip! We drove up Saturday and took Craig out for a birthday dinner that night. Wade loved the bread at Extra Virgin in Shirlington!!

Bright and early Sunday morning we headed out to the starting line. Wade's first experience on the metro was a little scary with all the strange people around him, but he felt better once he was safe in Daddy's arms and could hang on tight. We had shirts made that showed our support for Team Collins and Jamie, Danielle, Wade and I all wore them proudly and were even interviewed by Comcast SportsNet!

After wishing Craig luck at the start, we had a little breakfast and finished our coffees and headed into DC from Arlington. We walked across the bridge and headed for mile 10 to hopefully meet up with Craig to give him a drink. We were able to see him (yay!!) and I passed off his drink successfully! After that we met up with the Braidwoods and walked over to the mile 16 mark to catch Craig again. Wade was ready for a nap, but we had to see Daddy!!

Then we met up with Tara at the reflecting pool and got to catch up a little bit before walking back into Virginia to the finish line. Wade passed out in the stroller after some good play time and woke up in time to see his Daddy finishing strong up the hill to Iwo Jima. Craig didn't see us this time, but he sure heard us cheering for him and said it helped push him through to the finish!!

We finally found him after the race and gave lots of hugs and told him how proud we were of him! Then, it was out for a pizza and some beer with Tara and Andrew before heading to get our car at the hotel.

Sunday night we stayed with Julie and Charley in Stafford and Wade got to play with their two boys, Christian (almost 4) and Roman (14 months). They had a blast!!

Monday it was back on the road and we headed home - it was a GREAT weekend!