8 Acre Life: Bobbi and the Marathon -

8 months ago Bobbi began training for the Lincoln Marathon. To say that she has worked hard would be an understatement. Some days I would say to her, "How was your run today?" and she would say, "Horrible! I only ran 17 miles." to which I would reply, "Ummm that's like running from the church to our house so..." But Sunday, May 6 was the day. All last week we had temperatures in the 90's with about 99% humidity. So we prayed really hard for a cool down in the weather. I awoke Sunday at 5 a.m. to this.

Pouring rain, wind blowing my car around on the road and well, quite honestly a huge cool down. It was about 65 degrees out. So...love the temperature...but the lightening and high winds and rain...not so much. So as I drove in I prayed, "Lord, she's worked so hard and if no one else really needs the wind and rain could you please give her an awesome day for running?" I pulled up to Ashley's house (yes we moved her this weekend but that is the next blog post) and the rain slowed down to a sprinkle, the wind died and the temperature stayed cool. Ashley returned from taking Bobbi downtown to the start and Jill showed up with our Starbucks (we did have some guilt about that since 10,000 people would be running their hearts out and we would be watching and sipping our coffee but we did it anyway...) We got to the 3 mile mark and watched and waited. The gun was at 7:00 a.m. and masses of people ran past us...no Bobbi...finally here she comes.

She is throwing her long sleeved shirt at us because by this time the rain has stopped and the clouds were starting to part. That is her friend, Melissa, in the pink tank top. Also throwing a shirt at us. We hurried to the car and drove all the way around the blocked off streets to get back to the bike path on Hwy. 2 right behind Bobbi and Jayme's house. Mile 8. Jayme came out the back gate to meet us for the rest of the day.

Funny little side note about this picture. Jayme was looking at the pictures on my camera and said, "Why is she wearing boots to run...oh that's me." hahahaha they do look alike.

Look at her all cheery and waving at us. I would have been dead before mile 1 so I have no basis for comparison as to how I would have felt at mile 8...

Once again we hopped in the car and headed up to Antelope Park to watch her go by at mile 16.

Taking the time to high five the little kids watching the race. The guy in the black is headed back to the finish line. The turnaround is at mile 19 and 1/2.

At this point Melissa had finished the half so she no longer had a running partner, the sun was in her face and she had 10 more miles to go yet. Knowing this was going to be a tough stretch, Ashley stepped out and ran a little way with her. Bobbi told her she wasn't feeling well and was exhausted.

Ashley came back and we got in the car to go to 56th and Normal. Mile 21.

Of course I'm now thinking, "My poor baby!"

Ashley and Jill joined her for awhile here. Bobbi told them she felt much better and the sun was at her back. It wasn't hot fortunately. The weather had turned amazing for the run.

21 miles and she is still smiling and chatting...again, I would have died at mile 1 so...my admiration of her is off the charts.

Ashley and Jill are really in their running gear...flipflops...jean shorts...hummm. We headed to the finish at this point because the time splits that were being sent to my phone (amazing that her bib with her number has tracking in it and I just had to download an app to my phone and it told me where she was and how fast she was running. I love technology) and at the rate she was running and with traffic a huge hassle we wanted to make sure we were in the stadium for her finish.

Gun start is when the first runners go across the start line.

Chip start is when she actually crossed the start line.

Then there are markers at each of these places and they mark her time as she passes. The chip in her bib is read and recorded. So cool. It is how I tracked her when she ran in Las Vegas.