My Dad on this day...

Ross with the family straight after completing the Limassol Marathon 2012

Today my Dad ran a marathon.  42.1km; it seemed to go on forever!  I was pretty disappointed when, after that mighty long way, he didn't win a medal but he tells me that he finished and that's what's important on your first marathon.  Really?

35km down....thank goodness for the family cheering squad

Next year I'm going to go in the 1km race for kids and win it.  I don't think I've ever run that far before on purpose but I'll just sprint the whole way and probably leave everybody else for dead.  How hard can it be?  I'll probably get a few tips from Dad as he seems to know A BIT about running.  He reckons he should have trained more for today and then the last 7km wouldn't have been as painful.  He also says he wouldn't take lollies he's never eaten before on a race because they made him feel sick.  So that means, learning from experience, I'll probably need to practice eating jelly beans on all training runs.

One great thing about the marathon was that we all went away for the weekend to Limassol.  We stayed in an old apartment looking over the water and there were some cool places to scooter nearby.  Here's a few shots from our place:

They closed the road for the race and the starting line was just up the road

Mum cooked some pasta on the night before the race.
Something about carb loading.....

We woke up before 6am so we had 3hrs to wait until the race started

Whilst Dad was running, we watched some of the shorter races come in, found a good scooter park, met up with some friends, and bothered Mum for food most of the morning.  Sam & Anna & Jessie went on a little train that toots through the park but I just watched.  Wouldn't be seen dead on it.

Once we'd had lunch it came time to help Dad cross the finish line.  He phoned to tell us how far he was away so we knew when to start warming up for our 300m run with Dad!  He was running pretty slow down the final straight but he said the main thing was that he was still running.  I think I helped to speed him up A BIT.

Mum got all excited that he actually finished and took lots of photos and video. He couldn't say much straight after the race so I told Dad all about my sore foot from scootering today.  Sam did his best to beg for an ice cream and Anna was hot & tired and rode home in the pram with no top on.  Jessie just texted her friends like she'd been doing non-stop since yesterday when she bought herself a phone.  I wish I had my own phone...

We went back to the apartment, Dad had a bath whilst we helped Mum pack the bag.  Mum even drove home so Dad could rest.

Have I told you that I'm 8 now?  You bet; grade 3 and 8yrs old.  My birthday was awesome.  I learnt to snowboard with my uncle Roger at Lake Tahoe and then when I got home I got an I-Pod.  That weekend I had 2 friends from school over for a slumber party and we watched Get Smart the movie.  It was cool fun.