The Pit Crew

The day of the big race dawned bright and clear...and chilly!  Tom and Laurel were scheduled to start their marathon at 7:30.  Walt, Alice Nan, Joe and I went up to the race start location (which was near where they live),  and got to enjoy the festivities.

Tom had given Joe some "tasks" to perform along the course of the race (involving water and Gatorade), which Joe took very seriously. 

 

An American flag was unfurled from atop a fire engine ladder.

Bagpipers played "America the Beautiful."

And then they were off.

We went back to Joe & Alice's for half an hour and then went up to the next place to meet them, Cathedral Oak at Placer.  There weren't a lot of spectators there, but we cheered for runners as they passed by.  Soon we saw Tom and Joe was there to give him a sip of water.

He also let Joe know that Laurel needed him to get a hat for her, back at their house and bring it to the next meeting point.  We waited until Laurel had passed and then we headed over to Patterson Ave, about the half-way point, where we were meeting Bri, Lacie and Laurel's Mom. Walt got the hat and we all went to wait for Mommy and Daddy to show up.

Bri with Alice Nan, watching for Daddy.

At the point, Tom was about 5-10 minutes ahead of Laurel, and stopped to give the girls a kiss before running on.

Walt did the hat hand-off.

We then went back to Tom & Laurel's house so Laurel's Mom could get Lacie down for a short nap so she could last until the finish line.  There was a short nap for everyone else too, and then we took Bri with us and headed off to the turn on Modoc.  This is at the end of a hill and we figured we were in plenty of time to see Tom and give him some Gatorade, but we had missed him.  We were in time, though, to cheer for Laurel.

Next it was off to City College, where the race would end.  We saw Tom arriving on his way to the finish line.

We seemed to wait a LONG time for Laurel, but eventually she arrived, looking not the worse for wear.

We all met up at the end of the race.

We went back to the house for pizza and beer and then left the runners alone to get some rest, finally.  I hear a hot tub was going to be involved.

I then had a computer nightmare, where for about 2-3 hours I could not get the computer to reboot (which I did because it was behaving so badly and I figure it needed it).  But eventually, it did and now I'm not going to turn it off until we leave here!

What a great day!  I'm so glad that we came to be part of this triumph for Tom and Laurel!