Pittsburgh Marathon 2012

Today was the Pittsburgh Marathon.  This means several things when you live and minister in the city.  1. Road closures abound and so walking is the best means of transportation between the hours of 7am and 2pm.  2. Our church is located amidst the marathon, so it's impossible to have regular service times.  How does this translate for our family?  Well, Doug took the van to work and left at 6am to beat the closures.  Our church manned a water station at the intersection where it's located.  Doug has enjoyed this the past few years.  I think he mostly likes it because due to his involvement with the race they give him a cool Pittsburgh Marathon windbreaker and backpack.  He was decked out this AM.  =)  The boys and I of course were home-bound, well, more neighborhood-bound.  Koen slept in great this morning, but it was clear from his whining and over-silliness that he still had some catching up to do from his fun few days at Nana & PopPop's.  Tavin was thrilled to have brother back though and joined right in with the craziness.  (Oh, poor me!  Thankfully after a few days with just the little bug, I was refreshed enough to keep my cool throughout most of the day). The first hour was a little maddening, but after some down time and then getting them out the door things got a lot better.  We were out by 10am and all we had to do was walk down to Liberty Ave. a few blocks away to catch the race action.  The same woman that I posted a video of last year was there again cheering on the runners.  Now she has stamina!  There were fans lining the streets, water and Gatorade and PowerBar stations, several live music bands and all the restaurants were open.  It is a fun place to be!  Here are a few shots (not very impressive of the runners, but believe me, it was a huge event...10,000 in the full and half marathon!).  

Of course these cuties pictured above were my favorite attraction at the race.  They loved watching the runners and were very content to just hang out.  We also ran into lots and lots of neighbors which was a lot of fun.  We ran into some new friends we've been getting to know in recent weeks.  They have a 5 year old as well and we asked if they wanted to join us at the playground.  Koen was thrilled when they said yes!  We ended up staying there for over an hour.  Koen and this little friend do so well together.  It's really fun to watch.  Tavin hung in there and wasn't thrilled about sharing his brother, but I tried to make it fun for him with my antics of getting him on the playground, letting push the stroller around, etc.  When it was nearing noon, we bid our friends goodbye and headed back through the race route to Market District for a few groceries.  The boys again were riveted.  I love city living and these fun events and attractions that are within blocks of us.  After the grocery store, we passed through the race one last time.  Just the stragglers it seemed at that point. Man, after watching so many runners I really, really, really don't want to ever run 26.2 miles.  The Liberty Ave. stretch is the 22 mile mark, only 4.2 miles to downtown and the finish line.  Those poor people looked so tired.  I much preferred our fun morning of spectating, playing and running an errand!  Congratulations to all the runners who made it though!