She did it! Marathon #4. This past weekend we had a great time traveling, camping, and running/cheering for Dani's trail marathon in the Upper Peninsula. We stopped every few hours both there and back to play at beaches, see waterfalls, chase seagulls, eat local food and enjoy being on vacation.
Race day was beautiful. We loved being by the water and it reminded us of being in Alaska. Dani got off to a great start and Liam and I took a bus up the island to wait for her on the beach at mile 16. On the way we saw two black bears and later a bald eagle. Luckily Dani bypassed the bears. While we waited on the beach Liam got excited about the runners coming through, and would cheer for each one by saying "Yeah Runner Guy! Run run run!" After a while he started running on his own up and down the beach- below is a clip of his warm-up laps. It was fun to watch Dani come through, and she looked like she had just barely started- not like someone who had run 16 miles through bear-infested wilderness. We got back to the finish line on the bus just as she was coming through the finish line. She finished in 4:07 ... 8 minutes faster than last year; 15th overall women's place, and 4th in her age category. The competition was stiffer this year, and she was only 40 seconds behind the 3rd place. Her response: "Shoulda used the porta-potty before hand rather than on the trail". We're really proud of her and I'm impressed with how she did. She must have run hard, because this is the first time I've ever heard her admit that she was even a little tired afterwards.
The rest of the trip was spent being entertained by Liam's antics. He had fun camping, and was a trooper in the 16+ hours in the car. Also, Liam debuted his newly acquired beatboxing skills in a few bare-all freestyle exhibitions.
