My mom, dad and brother competed in the marathon on May 28th, Victoria did the half marathon (we didn't get to see her!). Reid, Laila and I surprised them by being on the course.
We drove up to Ottawa on the Friday before the race and had lots of fun with Grandma Mary, Danelle, Uncle Serge and Aunt Kelli. We made signs and planned out where we would be along the course on Sunday. I thought that a cheering section at 28km along the course in a neighbourhood called New Edinborough would be a great spot. I figured that my parents would be at that 28km mark around 9am since the race started at 7am. Mary helped navigate me to the intersection we had planned and then pushed Reid's stroller while I pushed Laila's to a corner where we had a great sight line of oncoming runners. I saw Josh first and waved and screamed his name like crazy only to watch him smile at us, wave and continue on. Later, he told me that he thought he was seeing things and wondering if he had run all the way to Toronto, which is what it felt like he had done.
About ten minutes later, I recognized my dad and had to almost jump in front of him to make him see me. He stopped and said, "What are you doing here?" and kissed Reid and Laila. While my dad was still there saying hello to us in disbelief my mom ran up in shock. She said, "OOOOOO!!!!!" and was crying and then bent down to kiss the babies only to have her back seize up on her! I was crying, Mary was crying, unfazed Laila was sucking on her lai, Reid was eating a cookie. Later, my dad said that he wasn't even looking at the side lines or paying attention to the cheerers so he would have ran right past me had I not stopped him.
After the race, my mom said that she had just come out of a very challenging, hot, humid, boring length of the race and was considering walking and then she saw me and Reid and Laila and was motivated to keep running. We tried to get to the 35km mark, but because it was pouring rain and Laila needed to be nursed we missed them by maybe 1 minute. I was a bit disappointed that we only saw them once along the sidelines, but the initial surprise was amazing. That long drive to Ottawa, alone, with the two little ones and all of the planning was soooo worth their reactions! I'm not sure I will ever forget that moment.
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