Marathon Tales...his goal was to finish.

Well it's over; after many gruelling hours of training during which we experienced a "less than desirable summer", from a rainy June, to an extremely hot,humid August; through days on end of rain! I guess it was only fitting that this marathon be run in, shall we say "trying" weather conditions. We were up at 5 a.m. to get ready, and when Georges laced on his sneakers in the motel room, that was to be the last time they were dry for the day. What a day!



It rained, so hard Saturday and Sunday morning, we thought the organizers just might postpone things til later in the day, but no such luck, so we headed out to the University to stand about waiting for the starting gun with another approximately 1500 runners; (about 150 of them running the marathon). There was so much water; water was coming up out of the storm drains, and there were small (and large) lakes of water everywhere. ...and the wind! The weather network said 25km winds gusting to more at times. ( I had some short videos to show conditions, but seem to have trouble loading them)

This next picture was about 32 km into the race at the bottom of a long hill heading directly into the wind coming off the marsh...brutal!

This was one of the exits at Connaught(I think) heading toward the University. Closed obviously...I was looking at what I thought were rivers that turned out to be streets...very messy driving and running!

However he did it...5 hours and 2 min. A little longer than expected because of the weather, but he finished; and that was the goal. I was in tears at the finish line and one of the organizers said to me is that your husband, and when I nodded yes, she gave me his medal and said,"maybe you would like to put this on his neck". Very emotional moment...for both of us.

Then we went over to the CEPs building for a bit of nourishment, and a massage before showering and heading home.

Georges was not among the first to finish, actually closer to the last, but he did reach the goal he strived for, and to me that was worthy of recognition. I had this gift waiting for him; engraved with a few sentiments among which said, " My goal was to finish."

Inside the card: Congratulations! First you dreamed it, then believed it, then achieved it! I am so proud of you.

Phew! I am glad that is over...running marathons is hard on a person(s)