November= weekend trip and Eric's Marathon

One of the main fun things we did in November was take a trip down to Charleston, SC. Cutest town ever. We have established a great traveling system with the Innes' of having our trips somewhat revolve around good food...

Saturday Farmers Market

We bought tickets for a carriage ride around town and saw the most charming houses.

And then continued the touring on a boat!

We had to stop at a bakery AND a breakfast joint before we left. Believe it or not, Eric and Natalie's mouths were both stuffed full of the most delicious sweet rolls in all three pictures we tried to take. 

November 16th:

When Eric was 12 years old, he started a marathon, ran about 16 miles, and had to ride to the finish line on a bus. That his been haunting him ever since. So, the Richmond marathon was his chance to redeem himself. After watching Eric do it, I made him to commit to keep running them. It was seriously the coolest atmosphere. When I first dropped him off we were worried because it was raining, but the weather dried up and turned out to be perfect. You could tell this was our first exposure to a marathon because we picked a spot to meet but had no clue how to get in touch, what time to be there and how it would work out finding each other among the 10 thousand other people. Luckily Matt and Natalie were there to watch with!

I got to the finish line extra early to make sure I didn't miss him. I realized how hard marathons were by watching people fall to the ground because their legs were shaking so hard. I was crying watching people I didn't even know! This man's legs cramped so bad he fell RIGHT before the finish line, so this picture is when people came to help him finish. The fact that Eric ran 26.2 miles is just crazy to me.

Eric was ready for the camera man.

 

While we were waiting, Natalie took my phone to try and snap pictures, I had my real camera, and Matt was on the look out for Eric. But then he came running SOOOO HARD AND SOOO FAST we didn't even have chance to take one...hence the shoe photo.

 That's how we ended up getting suckered into buying the profesh photos from the marathon photographer. These photos give you a sense of Eric's finishing style.

The finish line had such a pretty view with the bridge over the river in the background.

Eric said the crowds were the bomb and super supportive. This sign said "smile if you peed a little."

I was SO proud of my marathon finisher!!