A Marathon at Age 12!!!

 4:30am is the time we were required to be there for the race.  The temperature registered as 59 degrees-lovely.  The horrible wind--not lovely at all.  We sat in our van until it was time for the ceremony.

I was complimented on my beard.

 Brishen shook the hands of 6 survivors of Bataan.  That alone was a great experience for him.  There were 15 survivors present yesterday, 69 years after the original Bataan Death March.

Feeling good at mile 2!

 Shedding the sweatshirt by mile 6.  We left 2 sweatshirts, a pair of sweat pants, gloves, and my "beard" along the trail.  There were piles from others doing the same.  I think they collect the piles to donate to charity.  I left behind the warmest, comfiest (ugliest) sweats I own.  I will miss them next winter, but Bataan is the only time I can be rational enough to get rid of something so warm and hideous.

 There were times when the wind was only a light, welcome breeze.  There were also times when it just stunk.  Brishen doesn't usually wear his hair quite like he has it in the above picture.  We noticed a lot of women in double braids, a lot of people in hats, and a ton of people with military hair cuts (they were military, after all).  Then there was Brishen, who likes to go natural, even on a windy day.  Below is a picture taken walking up the never-ending hill against the wind.  Unfortunately, this would be where the strongest wind gusts were found.  There was one point when we had to be aware of projectiles like the hats flying off of all the people in front of us.

He was still feeling strong at mile 14, over half way there.  We had kept a good pace and passed a ton of people on the uphill stretch.

By mile 18, Brishen was limping and not feeling so hot any longer.  The area behind one knee (hamstring related?) was hurting.  In training, we had only gone 17 1/2 miles, so this mile-marker was officially proof that he had walked farther than ever before.

By mile 23, I had to force him to pose completely against his will.  He was not sure he was going to live at this point in the race.  I told him that he surely wanted picture proof next to something that said twenty plus miles.  He agreed.

By mile 25, Brishen knew he was going to live and that he was going to accomplish his goal.  His mood started improving.  He was happy to see this mile 26 marker, and a nice gentleman offered to take our picture together.  By 20 miles, it was really cool to see all the people who were so impressed with Brishen.  People were cheering him on as they passed or as we passed them.  They asked him his age.  He got lots of, "Good job, buddy!"  comments from strangers.  This is a tough walk for fully-grown military guys.  This is an amazing accomplishment for a child who has not yet reached his teen years!

 Here he is, my 12-year-old son--a marathoner!   It was hard.  He hurt.  But guess what?  He pushed through and DID IT!!  No one can ever take that accomplishment away from him.  For the rest of his life he can say that he has done a marathon.  Oh, and he will hit you if you call it "his first marathon"!  He considers it "his only marathon."

We completed the event in 7 hours and 45 minutes.  I am so happy that I was there for this big event in his life.  I am proud to have a son who sets big goals and accomplishes them.  Not discounting himself as "too young" or his mom as "too old" for anything is something that will serve him well for all of life.  Yeah, Brishen!!

Update:  Brishen had an interesting gait last night after the race.  He had to swing his leg out to take a step.  He hurt.  He took a bath once we got home and walked quite a bit better.  He got out of bed this morning  and is not really limping at all.  He doesn't feel like doing too many Tae Kwon Do kicks today, but normal walking seems to suit him fine.  His biggest complaint today is his pink eye, which you can see developing in some of the pictures above.