Marathon weekend.

It was a crazy busy weekend and I was exhausted on Monday, but it was well worth it. We both had a lot of fun... too bad it's Sumeet's last marathon.

Here's a summary of the weekend:

First up, Sumeet had to lay out all of his gear....

After a 6 hour drive up to Chicago (1 hour spent in traffic)- we made it up just in time to meet up with Matt for dinner at Goose Island Brewery. Cool place, great burgers and beer. My fav was the "boo-berry"- just a hint of fruit.

Saturday was "expo day" in Chicago. Since our weekend was short and there was so much to do, we decided to split up to maximize time. Sumeet picked up his bib and goodie bag for the run and I hit, what I like to call "heaven on earth". 

Here's a shot of the expo....

Saturday night was the final opportunity for Sumeet to carb-load and at the recommendation of a friend, headed to Leona's. It was a cute restaurant with great pasta and the best bread ever- mostly because they give you garlic butter to slather on the loaf. In honor of my husband, I decided to carb-load too. 

Sunday morning it was up and at 'em pretty early.

Here's the tattoo Sumeet put on to help determine his pace. Don't worry, it's temporary.

 Sumeet headed to the starting line and I headed to mile one to try and catch him. The way the race was set up, it allowed for multiple viewings if I planned and timed it out accordingly. It wasn't quite what I expected. There were 1.5 million spectators and 45,000 runners. Thankfully, it wasn't too crowded watching and I managed to sneak my way to the front for optimal viewing. Here's a shot of the runners- Sumeet's not in this shot. When I finally saw him, I got too excited and cheered too long and forgot to get a shot. It sure is hard being a cheerleader AND a photographer!

  Matt met up with me and we somehow missed Sumeet at Mile 12 but headed to Chinatown and had a great view of the race. The sad thing was, despite focused vision, Matt and I both missed Sumeet but he ended up finding us. 

Here's Sumeet in Chinatown right before he almost knocked over a one-legged runner.

We then headed to the finish line and I quickly snapped Sumeet with 1 mile to go. It was such a huge difference seeing the runners at this point. With only one mile to go, they were definitely more energized. At this point it was uber-hot and they had to open the fire hydrants...

Last year they ran out of water and Gatorade....they had plenty on hand this year!

One Mile to go!!!!

The runner reunite area: