Special Olympics World Games!

This Summer Special Olympics World Games came to LA and we had the opportunity to participate along side the Special Olympians in some of the sports like Sprint Triathlon and the Half Marathon so we couldn't say no to that kind of opportunity! First Dave participated in the Sprint Triathlon as the World Games started and a week later I participated in the Half Marathon to finish the World Games week... This opportunity was very special because last time the World Games came to LA was 40 years ago so it may not come back again for a really long time and we have such a connection with the Special Olympics with Dave having interned with them in the past so we wanted to support this great cause as much as possible...Plus we wanted the cool finisher's medal...:-P

On July 26th, we gathered at Los Alamitos Bay in Long Beach right down the path from our old 1900 Ocean Apartment as 15 Special Olympians competed for medals and 150? civilians participated for the thrill of it...

 Since the swim to bike transition is a bit far from the beach we decided to stay on the beach and play until we can catch him during his 5K run on the path...

I love it when they play so nice together... I actually got a peaceful few minutes in my beach chair if you can believe it! Go Dave!

All in all a very successful day!

Then Madison must have felt left out from all the action that day and her tooth decided to magically fall out finally as we got home... It came out nice and although it caught Madison off guard a bit that's her happy tears and a little bit of sad tears that it's gone... She actually had to hold onto it for two nights or so because she didn't want to say good bye quite yet...

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that she got to make this pouch at school... Each student got to make one and it is sooo cute and sooo special! So glad Mrs. Ambellan thought of this, such a great idea!!

On August 1st, I ran my 2nd Half Marathon. My only regret was that I wasn't as prepared as I wanted to be, our kitchen renovation took so much of our time and energy that I wasn't that consistent with my training... It started out cloudy and nice but it got a little too sunny by the end and that probably didn't help but oh well...

 That day about 20 Special Olympians and 350 Civilians participated in the race...

Waiting for the race to start...

 

 

Well once the race started they had a while to kill so good think they can walk over to the beach very easily...

 

Madison took charge of these videos...

Such a sweet Madison sings for Violet...:-)

 

At about 6 mile point I got to see my family...

At about half way point my lack of training starts to show plus I had to stop at a bathroom... I also had to walk a little bit and at that point I'm trying and hoping I won't bonk... Bad day to not have energy gels on me and surprisingly this race never gave out those goodies on the race route... This may be a big reason why I like the really big races more.

 They are waiting patiently for my finish... Sorry I took so long!