Marathon Weekend

mar⋅a⋅thon  [mar-uh-thon, -thuhn] –noun
1. a foot race over a course measuring 26 mi. 385 yd. (42 km 195 m).
2. any long-distance race.

3. any contest, event, or the like, of great, or greater than normal, length or duration or requiring exceptional endurance: a dance marathon; a sales marathon.

Will's version of the marathon is a bit different though.

First, it is done by:

Second, he doesn't just run a marathon, he runs an

ul⋅tra⋅mar⋅a⋅thon  [uhl-truh-mar-uh-thon, -thuhn] –noun
- any footrace of a distance longer than a marathon.

Will completed another ultra yesterday at the Redmond Watershed Park. This was his 2nd year doing this particular race (the run-as-many-miles-as-you-can-in-12-hours race), and this time he had a running buddy - Mark.

He also had his cheerleading squad:

Whom, last year, looked like a bloated cow:

Conditions were slightly better this year: Not pregnant. And not 97 degrees.

(I was really super swollen in that picture, so much that I couldn't even get flipflops on my feet. Even my face looks swollen. Okay that and I was just fat. LOL.).

Will ran a total of 57 miles and placed 17th out of about 83 runners. Mark ran 55.5 miles and placed 19th. (Pretty darn tootin' good for only being Mark's 3rd ultra and running 15 miles longer than he ever had before)

However, poor Mark didn't fare too well after the race. Complaining of a hurt shin, nausea and extreme fatigue...we later learned he spent the next 18 hours in the E.R. for dehydration.

This was Will after the race:

I honestly couldn't understand how he did that - ran around the park with Preston on his shoulders. If it were me, I would have been flat on my back passed out.

The best part about post-racing is:

Preston decided that...

But he did have fun playing on the grass afterwards. Sort of.

Really, you don't have to unless you're as crazy as him.

Speaking of marathons, my mom and I had a music marathon all weekend as we worked some more long hours on trying to get our album finished up.

This odd little beauty is an electric violin.

That odd little beauty is my mother. :)

Here's my real violin. It has a fist instead of a scroll. It's super cool.

Oh, and we also had the pleasure of performing a violin duet in Church today which was a hoot.

And last of all (but not least), Preston has had a few new and exciting things happen.

I've had to trim his hair above his ears a couple of times (the first time was when he was only 2 months old!). But lately, he has started to develop shaggy-ness from the back, over the ears, and into the eyes. So he got his "bangs" trimmed, the hair above the ears, and in the back. No more baby mullett. And the locks went into his baby book.

Preston also wore his first pair of:

We actually haven't boughten him any shoes yet, but these were thanks to his cousins Spencer and Noah. After I put them on him, he was very confused; kept lifting his feet up really high when he stood up. Within a few minutes, he was sitting on the ground leaning over sucking on the shoes and eventually he kicked them off.

So that little shoe experiment lasted long.

And finally, he has really been amping up the teething power. He is an angel by day, monster by night. Poor little guy though. Those gums have really been working hard.

He now has 2 bottom teeth, and one upper. Fortunately for me, he has been a very nice little baby and has not bitten me yet. You know what I'm talking about.

Until next time - Ciao!