The Wheeler Wobble Goes Marathon

I feel a bit phony blogging about the St. George Marathon 2012. After all, it wasn't my race. And witnessing a marathon, enjoyable as it may be, is about as related to running a marathon as comparing the contributions of the chicken and the pig at breakfast time. The eggs are nice, but bacon?  Now there's commitment.

It just so happens that there were three little Wheeler pigs, um, I mean siblings, who committed their all to this grueling 26.2 mile marathon last Saturday. As you can see, we rooted for them all by name. Go Jason! Go Justin! Go Christy! (Lance was also registered, but wisely chose not to run due to a knee injury and bad cold.)

Truth to be told, Eli was most interested in snacking on his peanut M&Ms...

...while Talia wondered what all the fuss was about.

Here's Charles, proudly watching for his children.

Before long, we spotted Jason. He flashed his famous toothy grin as he passed by, looking confident and strong as I cheered him on at the top of my lungs. It wasn't until after the race that I learned he hadn't actually recognized me.

Justin, on the other hand, blew kisses as he passed by. They also were not meant for me, but beautiful Brianna.

With a gal this gorgeous, who wouldn't be in love?

Determined to show our support, we jumped in the mini-van and rushed ahead to cheer Jason once more at mile 26. This time he was pure concentration.

The essence of a marathon: perspiration, persistence, and pain.

Despite that fact that I was literally jumping up and down in the middle of the street as Jason came along, he was so focused on his goal that he never even noticed we were there.

And so, it wasn't until after Jason passed through the final chute that we finally connected with our Dad. The park was packed, yet we may have been the proudest spectators around. Jason raced fantastically. He finished in 3:05:30, cutting a full ten minutes off of last year's marathon record.

Despite this marvelous achievement, Jason felt a twinge of disappointment at the finish for missing the Boston Marathon qualifying time by a measly thirty seconds. To which I say "boo." Qualifying times are for the birds. They keeping upping the standard until the only ones who make the cut are avatars, not people. Peanut Butter, you'll always be a superhero to me!

Justin likewise pulled off a marvelous race, finishing just minutes behind Jason. After which he promptly collapsed. Seriously. The poor boy was majorly ill. In the words of Brooklyn, "What to doctors do when doctors get sick?"

The ultimate queen of the race was the inexorable Christy Spackman. Christy proved once and for all that she is indeed superhuman by smashing her personal record by forty-five minutes and qualifying for Boston with her 3:32 finishing time. WOW!

Can you feel the joy? What a great moment!

The siblings racers unite, having gathered from NYC and Phoenix.

Of course, the kids were most excited to swipe a few bomb pops.

Uncle Lance joins the party...

...while Susie and Brianna smile over the memories.

It's not many families that unite from all across the nation just to suffer through 26.2 long miles. While it makes absolutely no sense, I'm glad to have married into a family that is just that insane.

The rest of the weekend was spent lounging around watching General Conference (here are the kids selling "tickets")...

...and of course, eating tons of gourmet food in true Wheeler fashion. Everyone chimed in their favorite recipes, so we all dined well. (Okay, almost all of us. Poor Talia and Eli got stuck with applesauce and bananas, thanks to a nasty stomach bug.)

Lance's lemon ricotta pancakes (above) and white raspberry cheesecake (below).

Brooklyn agrees they're nummy!

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Chef Christy relishes a raspberry.

And here's Brianna, digging into her breakfast bacon in what has to be the most hilarious picture ever! Sorry Brianna, you should totally hate me for posting this--you're just normally so incredibly photogenic that I couldn't resist.

Brianna, back to her normal beautiful self while hiking in Snow Canyon Park.

A lovely couple shot of Justin and Brianna...

...and Justin and Eli looking all matchy matchy. Say cheese!

Talia, hanging out in a hole in the rock.

And one last photo of the group.

Thanks so much to everyone for joining us on this Ultra Wheeler Wobble.