Me & The Boys: Mankato Marathon

This year Mankato hosted their first Marathon! It was a very fun weekend and Mankato had a spectaular turnout for their first event! There were a little over 2000 runners participating in either a marathon, half marathon or a 10K run. Friday night they hosted pasta feeds at 10 participating resturants and an expo with speakers. Then of course race day was Saturday morning. The Sohre family made a good show with 5 runners - yes that's correct. Five of us ran starting with my nephew Carter who ran in the Kids Race of 1K (.6 of a mile). I was so proud of him. There were about 150 runners and he finished in the top 10. I have to admit I even got tears when he ran over the finish line - well actually the whole time he was running. I'm such a sappy aunt - but I could see how much heart he was putting into this run. Good Job Carter!

The other runners were my brother-in-laws Ted and Marty running the 1/2 marathon and my sister Terri and I running the 10K. Now Terri and Marty are seasoned runners and have particpated in several races in the past however Ted and I particpated in our first. Terri really was the one to encourage me through this and continued with her motivation throughout my training. She would continually listen to me talk about running (poor thing) and she would send me encouraging emails. Thanks to her support (and others) I finished my first run ever.

The morning started off early on Saturday - especially for my sister Wendy who was at my house by 7 a.m. to watch my kids and bring them to the race. Jes had to go to school so unfortunately missed the race. Here is a picture of our cheer team along the path.