Marathon Weekend.

Waiting at the trainstop in the morning to head to the marathon.

Pat ran the marathon this past weekend here in Chicago, along with a friend from college and another friend from Ohio. We had 4 people staying here and Elliot seemed to finally get into a groove of having visitors, as it was the best he's been with warming up to people. They were all here Fri evening through Mon afternoon, so the longer visit probably helped. And, he had gone through a real rough patch the week before, so maybe a growth spurt or teeth were involved with the other visits?

It was Jen (Brian's wife) and Marilyn (Tim's mom) and Elliot and I, doing our best to catch Brian, Tim, and Pat, who were all at different paces. We took the train downtown and tooled around, trying to catch the guys the most we could. At one point, I took the stroller and literally ran from Adams and Wacker (Loop area) to Greektown, a bit of a hike for sure. We clocked our path afterward-- over 6 miles for us spectators! Although we felt very inadequate when whining about our aching joints and feet, we certainly earned an honorary medal for the support we gave them. Jen and Marilyn were out the door with the guys before 6am! Elliot and I slept in a little more then caught up with them downtown. None of us felt guilty about the big ol' Chicago-style pizza we ate for dinner!

Trying to get a good view while giving Pat a fun way to see Elliot. Afterward, however, Pat informs me that he never saw me at this stop, despite my efforts to make Elliot very visible.

This photo falsely represents the experience... they were hot, exhausted, and everyone did so much worse than expected time-wise, that finishing was the main goal. And they all gutted it out and finished!

The initial recovery. Everyone seemed relatively ok until it was time to stand up.

Elliot actually got a decent nap in while we were out and about. Guess it was that tiring that he had no choice! We did lose a shoe when I took them off because it was SO hot (80s! the worst for a marathon) and forgot about them, losing one somewhere out in Chicagoland.

I wish I had gotten a good shot of the group as we shared in a pre-marathon pasta dinner or lunch on the deck, but c'est la vie.

A few other random photos from the last few days...

Playing with mommy in the afternoon... he's not good at holding on, so this is short-lived.

He will crawl into anything and create a boat (or so I imagine he is doing).

New pjs! And a weird fetish for q-tips... I think he thinks they're toothbrushes, as he uses them that way until they're too soggy to let him continue.