mini-marathon

Eric bravely decided to run the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon (13.1 miles). If I remember correctly this is the largest mini-marathon in the country, with around 40,000 people signing up to run. Eric's training was a little sporadic and he has never run so far at one time before, but he did awesome. His mom (Nancy) and sister (Laura) stayed at our house over night, then Laura got up before the crack of dawn to drive Eric and 3 other racers in our ward to the race (thanks so much Laura!!). Nancy, the girls and I made it downtown just in time to catch Eric finishing the race. Here is a picture of the finish line from the bleachers I was standing on... ...and here is Eric. It's not the best picture, but I was so excited that we actually saw him running because we had no idea if he had already finished or not. As soon as I saw him I started yelling like crazy before I thought to take the picture (somehow he couldn't hear me over the thousands of other people yelling). The sun was glaring off the camera and I wasn't even sure he was in the shot; luckily he was.
Madilyn drew a "robot" on this sign to hold up for Eric. You may have to click on the picture to see it better and appreciate Madilyn's artistic talent. Almost all her drawings are robots that look similar to this.
Eric and Andy showing off their medallions. Andy's wife had twins a few days before the race!
Here's the whole family. Eric REALLY appreciated Nancy and Laura coming up to support him!
The good and the bad about the race:
When you sign up for the race you're supposed to estimate how long you think it will take you to finish. Eric hadn't run so far before, so he estimated a long time. There are so many people running this race that everyone is assigned a corral to start in, fastest runners starting in the first corrals, and slower runners in later corrals. Apparently Eric really overestimated his time and ended up in the last corral (you can see the Z on his shirt). The downside of this is that it took Eric a half an hour before he actually crossed the starting line to begin the race. The upside is that he felt really fast as he was able to pass tons of people who he really should have started ahead of in the first place.
Someone had the bright idea to take painkillers before the race so that they'd be able to keep running even when their body was sore. Eric stepped into a pothole when he was trying to maneuver around some people and twisted his ankle. The good news was that his ankle didn't bother him too much and he was able to finish the race. The bad news was that he probably really hurt something and should have stopped. It still gives him trouble 2 months later anytime he runs on it.