Spring, with a bang!

Spring has officially arrived in Prague and this past weekend was the kick off event.

G Unit ran his first 1/2 marathon. He's been training since January and Saturday was THE day. We got up early, I got dolled up and he got prepped to run. We left with plenty of time to get to the starting point. It was a gorgeous day, probably in the low 70s. I was comfortable in a skirt and light sweater. G Unit thought it was too hot. He's used to running in freezing conditions.

Man were there a lot of people at this thing. 9500 people running and then all their family and friends. It was intense.

G Unit packed up his stuff handed me his bag, took a mandatory pre run photo with the wife and then left me to go and find out where he needed to be and make sure he was all ready to go.

Then I pushed my way through the crowds and found myself a place to watch the start of the race. There were a lot of pushy people trying to get past me as they had to take a picture of their "friends". What the hell is my husband chopped liver? I unfortunately didn't manage to catch a glimpse of G Unit at the start. SO MANY PEOPLE but I did manage to catch the front runners and a lot of other random people

Look at those strides - crazy fast

After looking at all these random people, reaching the end of the group and not seeing G Unit, I grabbed my things and ran off towards work. I had a surprise. Secretly I had made signs. Oh Yes. G Unit had a "team building" dinner earlier in the week and it was perfect timing. I colored my signs while watching my tv shows. (side note: I think I may need to buy coloring books for myself. I found it oddly relaxing to be coloring in the lines.) Behold the genius of my signs, which I totally stole from other people. 

G Unit asked earlier where his sign was while traveling to the start

I played the horrified wife pretending that I had not thought to make him a sign
and now felt totally guilty at my lack of support - I'm sneaky like that

People at work totally appreciated my sign making abilities. I grabbed the signs and picked up Bara and Martina who wanted to help me cheer G Unit on. I was a little worried that he might have reached the bridge where we decided to wait for him before we got there, but I tried to relax while Martina and I held up the signs for others to read. 

This was probably the best part of the day for me. Lots of the runners going by smiled, smirked or out right laughed. I could see them reading the signs as they went by and they would then look up at me and I'd give them a huge smile. And Martina was cracking jokes next to me. It was great. All the while though we were frantically searching for G Unit. Do you know how hard it is to find a white with red trim shirt during a marathon? Practically impossible. I've already told him he needs to get a pink or purple shirt for the next one. And then Bara spotted him and then there he was right in front of us. He didn't even read my signs, but we yelled and screamed at him anyways as he went by. Apparently he could hear us giggling halfway down the bridge.

I had lunch with the girls and then headed over towards the finish. I got there around 2:20 which is about the time we thought he would finish. To make a long story short I had just missed him but didn't know it so I sat there with my camera waiting for him, hoping to get a picture of him finishing. I didn't get a glory shot of him coming in on the home stretch but I got these other random pictures.

And then I wondered where could hubby be. He should have finished by now. He said he would text me. And then I started to worry. What if he passed out somewhere. Who would I call? How would I find him?

This is me worried. I had my hand up like where is he?

And then I decided to text him. And then I heard a strange buzzing. Coming from his bag. Damnit! He had left his phone with me. So I ran over to where we said we would meet if I missed him at the finish. And there he was. Bad wife. I tried to cheer him on at the end and he ended up having to wait for me. {le sigh}. I'll do better next time. We got a picture of him with his metal even if it was delayed. Isn't he cute?

Now I'm trying to convince him to do the 1/2 marathon in Brussels. I've also told him he has to put a full marathon on his list. I want to make more signs. And get pictures of him finishing the race. And eat Belgian fries and gaufres. I like this whole traveling to cheer him on thing. He says he'll do the full marathon if I do a half marathon. I'm thinking I like the sidelines better.