We conquered the Victoria B.C. Marathon!

This past Sunday on October 10th, 2010 ( 10-10-10) Vicki and I completed the 42 kilometer (26.2 mile) Victoria B.C. marathon that finished in downtown Victoria right in front of the famous Empress Hotel and Parliament building. It was a great race and best of all we did it together!
We spent 4 days in Victoria with my (Jay's) Mom and stepfather Bruce and we had a great time together! We went to the popular Butchart Gardens and saw them in their rich fall colors.

We also took a bus tour of the Victoria area and learned lots of history about the city. Victoria is an amazing city among all the Northwest points of interest. It is also host to an IMAX theater housed in the Royal British Museum. We saw an truly awesome movie called "Hubble" which showed the final maitenence of the orbiting space telescope. Then we returned to see in full IMAX production Toy Story 3. (Our favorite of the 3 movies!) On the walk back to the hotel, we took this picture of the Parliament building outlined in lights. A magnificant sight!


All day Saturday we began to prepare ourselves for the race on Sunday. We began seeing more and more people arriving in the city for the race. You could tell the excitment was building and before you knew it, our alarms went off at 5AM Sunday morning! RACE DAY!

Vicki and I set off for the start of the race at 6AM and here is what we experienced....

At 6:30 the start gun went off and we ran. . . . .



We ran. . . . And we ran. . . . We kept "pounding the pavement." Most of the signs on the course were posted in kilometers but there were a few mile signs.

This was "take three" of the "just past mid-point" video. The other 2 takes were too bouncy so we took a quick walk to film...



Not long after the halfway point, we saw some incredibly fast runners. These are known as the "elite" runners as they are professionals and usually run the whole course in under 2 hrs. 20 min. They were incredible! (The runner in the red jersey finished first.) We got to run by the "elite"...or actually the "elite" flew past us...pretty cool!

And then we ran some more. . . . we ran our way closer and closer to the finish line! It was cold and windy most of the race but towards the very end, the sun came out. We sure were thankful for the sunshine.
The entire time were were getting confused by the km vs. mile markers but we just kept going until we reached the final 100m. We saw our family cheering us on! It was great!

What a thrill it was to finish my first marathon! For Vicki, it was her 3rd full marathon! We ran the entire race together! She is such a patient and gracious wife & coach! And to top it off, we had a ton of fun running! Here's a short video of us crossing the finish line!



We finished the Victoria B.C. Marathon. . . . TOGETHER!

You can tell by our smiles that we were glad to reach the end!

Thank you to all who prayed for us and cheered us on! We knew we had the support of our family and friends! And Hannah and Grace were such a great support during all of the training and even the race day! They are such blessings to us!

What a great adventure it has been! Until next time, we'll keep running. . .on course!

Jay, Vicki, Hannah and Grace

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." - Hebrews 12:2,3

5 Days To Go Until We Run The Victoria Marathon!

It's been a busy start to our fall but believe it or not, we are only 5 days away from runnning the Victoria, B.C. marathon. Over the past several weeks, Vicki and I have continued our preparation to run 26.2 miles on 10-10-10! Putting in the runs to get ready has been hard at times, but thankfully, we feel ready.

We're getting excited about the entire weekend and spending time with my mom and her husband, Bruce. It will be a great time together!

Below is the what the Race medals look like! Hopefully, come Sunday afternoon, we'll both being wearing our medals!

And below is a picture from the start of the last year's race! Looks fun! And also it looks like a nice day however! Hopefully, we'll also get a nice day this Sunday!

We'll give you a full report when we return. Have a wonderful week and weekend!

Running His Course ~ Jay, Vicki, Hannah and Grace

P.S. On a side note, 2 weeks ago, while we were finishing up a training run, Gracie fell off her bike. Falling backwards, she landed on left hand and suffered a fracture in her wrist. Thankfully, she was only given a velcro splint for her hand and wrist and is doing better. She will have it on for 2-3 more weeks.