Great Weekend….followed by Great Monday!

  Last weekend we had another Cave-a-Palooza here at the Cave Casa…..The usual cast of characters, and a few more canine relatives…

 

Meet Murpy A.K.A. “Murph” the Weimaraner …and Finley A.K.A. “ Princess Finley, the Silky Terrier. These two are Kelly and Cindy’s new additions.

Princess Finley has her own car seat…Murph could probably fit in a child car seat..Well, maybe not..his legs are longer than most kids!

Molly, A.K.A. Molly Angel, the Black Lab was part of the canine crew too…AND, our local Mayor stopped to say “hi” …Thanks for stoppin’ by Rick!

The reason the Wolff family came up was that Chris was running a Marathon in Schaumburg, IL (up by Chicago) with Terrie and Tim (who were running the 1/2 Marathon there also) on Sunday AM at 7:15 AM.  We all had major food and drink here on Saturday …tacos, lasagna, and adult beverages for those who were NOT running the next day.  Those 3 who were running did not imbibe…they wanted to be 100% and that alcohol will dehydrate ya! 

Chris rode home with Terrie and Tim to Sugar Grove Saturday evening  so she could  hitch a ride with them to Schaumburg at 5:15AM Sunday…John and the boys stayed here Saturday night.  Sunday AM we all got up and left here at 6:35AM.  Den and I drove our truck to Terrie and Tim’s house, left it there, and rode the rest of the way with John and the boys to Schaumburg to watch our family “racers”…

We got there just in time to catch Chris, Ter and Tim at about mile 5 of the race. For those of you who are clueless, the Marathon is a 26.2 mile run, and the half (Mini) Marathon is 13.1 miles…I would have trouble even riding my bike in just the Mini!

Left, is Chris and right is Ter and Tim….This is where the Marathoners split off from the Half Marathoners…Chris went one way , Ter and Tim went the other way…

We jumped in the car and caught them at the next check point…Ter and Tim came through first, Chris was a bit later because she was running the full route…This was where we had to leave Ter and Tim and follow Chris for her next check point.  We knew we couldn’t watch both, and Ter and Tim were not far from their finish line…We caught up with Chris one more time before she crossed the finish line…

 

 

Lookin’ Good, Chris…on a great pace and still smilin’. At this point I texted Ter and told her we would meet them at the finish line to watch Chris cross it…They had already crossed and it would be about another hour before Chris crossed it. John knew just about when she would cross it. He and Chris ran a Marathon together in Indianapolis, and he knew Chris’s pace…FYI, John ran in the Boston Marathon, 2013…never to be forgotten!

About this point, Aiden and Maddox were getting tired of just waving and cheering for their Mom…They were ready for her to be done and wanted her back with them! We drove back to the finish line and met up with Terrie and Tim..They were there waiting for Chris.  There were still some Half Marathoners coming across the finish line and a few of the Marathoners were beginning to cross too..Everyone had the same finish line, some just ran different mileage to get there….

 

Still smilin’ 26.2 miles later, Chris crossed the finish line with all of  us screaming and clapping for her!!

Terrie and Chris had their personal best times…Terrie ran 13.1 miles in 2:27.53 hours ( with a kidney stone, I might add).  Tim ran  13.1 miles in 2:27.55 hours. Chris ran 26.2 miles in 3:48.17hours.

Team Wolff and Team Heiser..and their medals. WOOT!WOOT!

After the race, Den and I hugged the Wolffs goodbye. They were leaving directly from Schaumburg for the drive to Indianapolis. We jumped in Terrie and Tim’s car and rode back to their house to pick up our truck..Thanks to the Wolffs and the Heisers for hauling our mooching asses to and from the race…Yes, we are spoiled.

I said in the title of this blog that we had a great Monday, too.  We sure did. We met John and Bridget (FD5 and his better half) at the Sandwich Fairgrounds where they were camped. We walked up and had coffee with them this morning in their Mobile Suites…Fred and Dennis are in love. Fred IS a rock star!!!

Having so much fun, they came down to our house and we went to lunch to continue the gab fest…We went to The Bull Moose Bar and Grill, our local attraction in town. I have blogged about this place.  This train car, a Palace Car, served Teddy Roosevelt from 1900 to 1913, and was used in his presidential campaign in 1912. I suggest you click on the link if you are a history buff!  The server took our photo, but the background light fooled the camera…You can, however, see the original stained glass windows.

OK, we all look a little blurry, but you get the gist of it…We sat inside the old train car for lunch..What a fun day we had. We all came back to our house and laughed and talked for another couple hours…These two are about the vintage of our kids and just as crazy and fun, too!! Thanks for going out of your way, John and Bridget,  to come see the Crazy Caves!

Well, That about does it for another blog. Hey, at least this one was more than just what we ate for dinner and documenting our mulching…We actually DID something!!

"I go running when I have to. When the ice cream truck is doing sixty."

                                                                                                    ~Wendy Liebman