Rockin' K....

In my previous post, I mentioned that Marc was running in a 50 Mile (yep, 50 Miles) race today. Well, despite the wind, Luke and I made it to the race this afternoon to watch Marc finish.

Luke and I left home around 3:30 this afternoon and went here....



Yep, Kanopolis State Park, right here in the great state of Kansas -- in Ellsworth County for all of you locals.

This race is called "Rockin' K" for a simple reason -- it follows the Rockin' K trail in the park. It's been an annual event for a number of years. It's always the first full weekend in April. There are two separate events -- a marathon (roughly 26.2 miles) and a 50-miler. Our friends, Phil & Stacy, direct this race.

If you've never been to a trail race, please don't compare it to a regular road race that you might have completed in the past. These races aren't clean (quite a bit of dirt and mud), and generally, they're in the middle of nowhere. Though I have been to a number of them now with Marc, they're still a stretch for me as I'm definitely a "city girl."

This is why they're a bit of a stretch....



Understand why????

The race starts and ends in the same spot -- near the Corral Shelter in the state park. Here's what the primitive shelter looks like. It does have fireplace which does provide nice warmth.



This is the road the runners take off on. They do run on road for a very short distance -- less than a mile. The rest of the race until the very end is ALL trail. So, from the shelter, this is the road we spectators look at to see when our runner is coming in when they finish.



Today, on one of the windiest days of the year, Marc finished running the entire 50 miles in 11 hours and 47 minutes. Wow!

Just before he crossed the finish line, I handed Luke over to him. So, Luke got to finish with him. We later told Luke he better appreciate today. It's not very often you get to cross a finish line without doing anything :)

If you look very closely on the right side of the photo, you can see the actual white finish line -- again, fairly primitive but it certainly works.



Luke wasn't quite sure what to think. He didn't at all cry (he was with his Daddy), but he certainly didn't know what was going on.

Marc said that even though it wasn't his best time ever, it was his "best race" because Luke was with him across the finishing line.

Here's a photo of Luke with our friend Stacy -- one of the directors of the race.



And, here's a photo of Luke with Jamie -- Phil & Stacy's daughter.



After Luke and I knew Marc was O.K. (not passing out or anything), we left. It was getting quite late. Luke was asleep fairly quickly after we left the race. It was, overall, a late night for him as he went to bed over an hour past his normal bedtime.

On the way home, I noticed in my rearview mirror a BEAUTIFUL Kansas sunset. So, while Luke was already asleep, I pulled over on a side road, and I snapped a photo. And people say Kansas isn't very pretty.



And, before I sign off here, Marc did apologize to me for the whole alarm clock thing (see previous post). I'll keep you all posted as to what "payment" I will get. Thanks to those of you who made suggestions.

Tootles....