Jacob's Half Marathon

So Jacob had his half marathon last weekend. We camped at Bandalier since it was pretty close to the race site in Los Alamos. I think we all learned that our tent is a wee bit too small for our family--especially with Keiger rolling all over the place all night. It's a wonder we give him a sleeping bag and pad, because he doesn't seem to use them. Anyway, Bandalier's pretty cool, just like Mesa Verde, only smaller. The more I learned about this half marathon, the crazier it was. It was a trail run basically up Jemez Mountain (lots of elevation gain) and then back down a ways. So Jacob has been training by running up a trail up a ridge behind our house. For some strange reason, he thinks that's fun. The last bit of the course was this crazy steep uphill narrow track that was formed by water running down these rocks. Does that make any sense? Anyway, it was steep and knarly enough that I certainly would not want to run up it at the end of 13 miles. In fact, I think I only saw a couple of runners who were able to run it without walking--Jake said he was using his hands to pull himself up. The morning of the race, we woke up early and Jake downed his peanut butter sandwich on the drive to the start. Brad and Brooke from the ward also ran, and the Leishers came along, so the kids had lots of buddies to play with while we waited for them to finish the run. I was mighty surprised to see Jacob power up that last hill so early--neither of us had imagined he would finish that soon. He finished 15 minutes faster than he thought he would and ended up placing 11th or 13th (I can't remember) overall. There were 280 runners. So I was pretty proud--and he was pretty tired. Brad and Brooke did awesome as well. I was quite impressed--that was a tough course and they are very good runners. One race down for Jacob. He has one more in a couple of weeks at Pagosa Springs--so we get another camping trip.

APOLOGIES for no pictures! I forgot to take the camera--horrid, I know. You probably won't be surprised to hear that Jacob just wore an old soccer jersey and shorts--no shorty running shorts for him. Although, his ankles have become super skinny from all this running! You have to see them. I couldn't convince him to let me make him a t-shirt to run in, so we cheerleaders made shirts for ourselves to show some support for Jacob, Brad, and Brooke. Those shirts deserve a picture, because I think they're pretty cool.

Here are some pictures from the run's website (Jacob)
The bottom of the mountian (looking downhill, around 3 miles into the race)

Starting the climb (around 4 miles in)

about 5 miles in

from the top looking down to Los Alamos 6.4 miles in

Sage turned 6 yesterday if you can believe it. I can't. She had a dog birthday party earlier this week before school let out. Lots of doggie fun there. What do you get a girl for her birthday when all she wants is a dog? And we're not getting a dog. Oh well. I think she's pretty happy with the alternatives she got. Sage did finish school this week. The kindergarten class had a sweet awards ceremony, complete with puppet shows and a performance on recorders. Sage received the award for "Best at Drawing Chickens." We're so proud.

We're in Utah right now to play, and Jacob is spending his free time in Taos searching for antlers. Must be summer.