I chose my love, and I love my choice: October 2009

I have lots to catch up on, but the biggest thing first: Brooks ran the St. George marathon a week ago. He did awesome. We drove down from Salt Lake and stayed with his mission president and wife. It is always fun to spend time with them, and we are always well taken care of. Brooks took off around 4:30 am to go meet his group and then catch the bus to the starting line. About 9:30 Spencer and I headed over to the race. We met up with Cindy & Robb and their girls and waited. We were so glad to have them with us. It was fun to have family there. We finally got a good spot in front so we could see Brooks as he ran in. He ran it in 4 hours and 9 minutes. The first words out of his mouth when we found him past the finish line: "That's the dumbest thing I've ever done!" He was pretty sore, but happy to have completed it. When we went back to the Larkin's they pampered him like a little baby! They had a hand held massager, foot bath/massager, and a jacuzzi tub. After all the pampering and a short nap we were one the road. We got to stop by Cindy's place on the way home and spend some time with them. Kayla never ceases to amaze us with her knowledge and wind power! Brooks walked like an old man for the next few days, but recovery was relatively quick. Quick enough to run an 85 mile relay race the next Saturday. He was on a team of 7 people who ran in the Market 2 Market relay from Omaha to Lincoln. He was a little nervous about it the whole week, but he did well and had no problems. We woke up that morning to a few inches of snow and more falling. Brooks kept praying they'd cancel the race, but they never did. We dropped him off at 6:00 am and sent him on his way. The snow didn't slow them down at all since they did a lot better than last year's team did coming in at just about 11 1/2 hours.