Coach K's Team- San Antonio Marathon

Well, as soon as the State Cross Country Meet ended on Saturday, my mom and I headed to meet Travis and my dad in San Antonio. They had already left Austin a little earlier so my dad could pick up his runner's packet at registration before it closed. We got to San Antonio, checked into the hotel and smuggled Snuggles up to the room. That was a very hard maneuver. I had to put her in Travis's hoodie and hold her like a baby with only her little nose sticking out. I was so nervous that we'd get caught! We originally had a hotel room at the Best Western, which allows pets, but Hotels.com messed up our reservations, so they HAD to upgrade us to a nicer room at the Crockett Hotel right on the path of the race! :) The room was nicer, but we had to be creative with Snuggles there. She was great though, and did not mess anything up in the room! She only barked once when we were coming back from getting ice, and she just growled at night when people would open their room doors and walk down the hall talking.

Anyways, we had to get up early on Sunday morning so that my dad could get ready and be at the starting line at 6:00. He was ready to leave the room at 6:45, so after a few pictures, my mom left to take him to the starting line. Since there were 35000 other runners, he didn't get to start running until an hour after the race officially began. We waited outside our hotel for our first stop to cheer him on at mile 2. He was doing great! We even saw a couple from church running and another friend from Austin. Crazy!

We checked out of the hotel and headed to our next stop: mile 8.5. It was a little difficult to get there, even though it was a few miles away, because all of the roads were closed for the race. We saw my dad, he was still feeling pretty good, and then we headed to get food!

We took a little nap in the car and went to Target to get some snacks, then we were out to our next pit stop- mile 20.

When we got near that mark, we realized that we wouldn't be able to get there because the roads were closed all around it, so we ended up at mile 23. I was so nervous, just hoping that he was still okay and feeling sane. I got really scared when I saw a man younger than my dad pass out with his eyes rolling back in his head and not responding. Honestly, I started crying. But, thanks to Travis and Dani, I felt better and kept looking for my dad. I was walking up the course to see if I could spot him sooner and run with him a little bit. I got anxious sitting there waiting for him. I finally found him, and we ran/walked almost a mile together. I was exhausted, haha! He was till feeling pretty good mentally, but he could barely move his legs and was cramping on an off... We told him that we'd meet him at the finish line!

The finish line was even harder to get near in a car, since all the roads and parking lots around the Alamodome were closed! I had to park the car and walk about 2 miles, hoping that I'd get there in time. We got there just in time to see dad running the last 200 meters or so and finish!

I was so proud of him! What an accomplishment! He could hardly move his legs, much less walk back to the car, so we rented a cab to take us back- money well spent!

Congratulations, Dad! Again, I'm so proud of you! We had a great time tracking you down today and cheering you on!!

I'm still not sure that I'll ever do a marathon, but I think one day I could still do a half-marathon. We shall see!