Stroller Mom on a Roll!

Seems like Stroller Mom is making up for lost time as she talked her third marathon this year (70th to date)! The latest was this past Saturday (29March2008), the National Marathon in Washington D.C, Maryland! Awesome job, Stroller Mommy, Daddy, and Co.! Always great to hear about the further adventures of our East Coast Ohana, which will be growing soon (more later)!


We had a stunning day for a marathon here. Cherry Blossoms were almost at full bloom, the weather was great, the race wasn't too crowded, particularly after the half marathoners finished their course. It was a nice race.

Stroller Daddy was wonderful company for the last eleven miles, meeting me after the fifteen mile marker, just in front of the Capitol. He ran with me with the intent to go as far as a race photographer to get a picture, then peel off and do something with the kids while I finished the race. We passed the photographer and kept running. Wasn't too long before he offered to just finish the race with me. It wasn't crowded, nobody seemed to mind he was there. In fact, most of the volunteers and other runners thought it was great that he was pushing the double. And he got to see parts of DC he'd never seen either.

The kids were enjoying it, so we kept going. We ran through the Ninth Street Tunnel from mile marker 17 to 18, which was about as long as the H3 Tunnel to Kaneohe, and the acoustics were fabulous, so we sang our version of the Oscar Mayer Bologna song, sung to the tune of Beethovan's Ninth Symphony... And "Play That Funky Music White Boy", where Grace chimes in with the chorus.

Both kids fell asleep as we were crossing the East Capitol Street Bridge in the final mile, making for charming finishing pictures. It was a wonderful way to finish out a marathon. I was really glad that not only did we have the space to do it, we made darned sure we weren't in anyone's way, but it seemed to be so well supported by the race volunteers. And nobody tried to pull him off the course at the finish. In fact, the seemed to be excited when family members finished with their runner. And there was plenty of space to do this. I don't like it when kids/dogs jump on the course to finish with a runner in a crowded race, so I certainly don't support it within my own family. But when you're the only runner in sight...