Marathon Mania

This weekend Kris' older sister Jen (aka "Aunt Jen" to Sophie) flew in to run the Santa Clarita Marathon with him. It was fun to have her visiting and to watch the two of them run their first marathon "together." It's no secret that Kris has been running marathons for the past 8 years and this was number 16 for him. Well, this was the third one for Jen and she has certainly challenged Kris to push himself even more -- she came in 3rd place for the women in the entire marathon! We are very proud of her! And I have to include a congratulations to her also for qualifying for the Boston marathon a couple of weeks ago!

Here are some highlights from the weekend...

Pasta carb-loading at Buca di Beppo the night before the big run:
Sophie helping Papa and Aunt Jen gear up bright and early before heading out on race day:
Kris trying to keep up with Jen just past mile 7:
Thumbs up from Jen and so far so good for Kris...
Sophie waiting with mama and Uncle Brandon at the finish line:
Aunt Jen coming in 3rd place for women (1st in her age group and 25th overall):
And....here comes papa! We'll just say that he didn't have his best race ever. He was able to pace Jen for the first 12 miles and then she left him in her dust! Kris says he thinks he at least came in before "the little old lady from Pasadena" :) All that matters is that he finished his 16th marathon and we are very proud of him!
And hey, he even had energy to do a cartwheel at the finish line (this is the beginning of it!):
Aunt Jen getting her 3rd place plaque:
And here's Sophie congratulating her papa on a very good race!
Sophie has so much fun cheering on all of the runners -- I have a feeling one day we'll all be there cheering her on too!