The Robin Hood Marathon

A few weeks ago we all went to Nottingham for a long weekend so that Chris and Chelsea could run the Robin Hood Marathon there on Sunday morning.  We kicked around a bit on Friday after we got in, visited Wayne Manor on Saturday (more on that later) and on Sunday the runners headed out for a long morning.

The kids and I kicked around the hotel for a bit that morning, had breakfast, and then headed out to do some exploring.  

First stop, the Robin Hood statue, which looked like it was shooting our stroller.

Hannah didn't really get what she was supposed to be doing with her hands, but gave a pretty good effort.  Jayce, on the other hand, practiced all day, and pretty much nailed it.

Next we went to the Nottingham Castle and emerged with some finish line cheering costumes.  

Like I said, he nailed it.

We took our signs on swords, and headed for the finish line.  This was great for a few minutes, until the kids realized that they could fight each other with their signs, and so they did.

It ended up being a terrible day for a marathon.  It was really sunny, humid, and unusually hot in the mid 70s (which is EXTREMELY hot if you are running non-stop for 3+ hours.)  The race started pretty late in the morning, around 9:30, when they usually start around 7.  I was worried about our runners, and with good reason.  We saw Chris first, I snapped this quick picture and then we all started yelling and jumping and waving our signs. 

I had told Jayce that he wouldn't be able to run with dad across the finish line in this race like he has done before, because we were a little too far from the finish line for Jayce to happily run the whole way, and I knew that Chris and Chelsea were both pushing for a time, and I didn't want him to slow them up.  

Chris and Chelsea both did great.  They finished a marathon.  They did it without injury, and in major heat (for England, anyway) that they had not been prepared for.

But neither of them were very happy afterwards.  They didn't meet their goal times despite doing pretty intense training for the last 5 months, so they were understandably disappointed.  But they did make me laugh, because their conversations after finishing sounded a lot like what non-marathoners (like me) think about running a marathon.  About how terrible they felt, about how they didn't even want to finish, how they thought they might be sick, etc.  

They talked about how much more they liked half marathons.  Still a challenge, you can enjoy the run more because it takes more out of you, less time commitment in training, less misery after the race, etc.

But I wouldn't be surprised if there is another marathon at some point in their futures.  Chris' last one was over a decade ago.  Chelsea's last one was just two year ago.  So we'll see.

As if the craziness of the race on this very hot day wasn't enough, we had a late checkout at our hotel and and early train home that we were trying to catch.  Since everything got pushed a bit back we had to rush like crazy to try to get out of town immediately after the race. 

Meaning that I took Hannah in the stroller, raced back to the hotel, grabbed everyone's luggage, checked us out, and raced down to the train station.  

Chris, Chelsea, and Jayce walked over to the train station from the race.  It was a mile away.  Chelsea didn't even get to sit down for a few minutes.

And we missed our train by 7 minutes. SEVEN MINUTES!!!!

Which is why we are sitting on the ground at the bottom of the steps in these pictures.  We got to the bottom, saw the train was gone, and all just plopped right down like we weren't going to move another foot until we had to. 

Luckily, there was another train about 40 minutes later, and we managed to get onto that one and not have to pay any additional fares or anything.  Whew!  

After that it was smooth sailing.  

Smooth-ish sailing, that is.  There was still another train, tube, and bus ride before we made it home.

But we did make it home.  And even though it was a crazy weekend, it was a fun weekend too.