A Great Weekend

Hi Everyone,

We had a fun weekend!! My Mom and Dad came down to our house Fri. night and Ryan ran in the Akron Marathon.

We had to be up at 4:00am on Saturday morning to get Ryan to downtown Akron for his running debut in the Akron Marathon's half marathon. My Mom and Dad stayed overnight at our house and got up with us. Stephanie (Ryan's girlfriend) got to our house a little before 5 and we were downtown Akron by 5:30. The race started at 7:00, but many streets were closed by 6:00 and some the night before, so we knew we had to get there early. We parked in a lot by Akron U and walked to the starting area. Here is a pic of the early morning crew in the parking lot.

Papa Ron, Grandma Tommie, Ryan, Stephanie, and Mark. My Mom and Dad had on their Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation sweatshirts!!

We got to the start area and there were tons of people and loud music blasting. Most people looked really sleepy. We saw Stephanie's Dad there. He was running a leg in the 5 man relay team. I hope he had fun! It was only about 50 degrees and still dark. They did have large lights set up. There were three corrals for the runners labeled A,B, and C. A was for the fastest runners, B for medium runners (Ryan was in this one), and C for slower runners. When you signed up for the race, you put what time you thought you would finish the race and that determined what corral you were in. They started 5 minutes apart so their wasn't a huge stampede and so there was space for everyone. I was so impressed with how organized it was and I read in the paper that there was not one problem with security. Ryan's team all wore the same shirts that were given to them by Lisa and David Craine. I made Ryan a headband that said Remembering Wo 3/6/86 - 6/9/13. They got to pick the number they wanted and Ryan picked 5 for the number of people in our immediate family.

We were pleasantly surprised to see Gio along with his brother Bruno and Bruno's fiancee, Jacqui near the starting area. Jacqui was in charge of the trash and recycling around the race area and Bruno and Gio were helping her. I think I hugged Gio for 10 minutes. I have missed him so much as did the rest of the family. He looked really good, but I could tell seeing us brought back a flood of memories as he had tears in his eyes. I had a pang of sadness as I saw him standing there by himself because Lauren was always by his side and still should be. I know it is still too hard for him to be around us, but it sure was nice to see him. Mark and I love that kid as if he were our own and wish nothing but the best for him. We all stood together and cheered the runners on as they started the race. It was so exciting. There were 15,000 runners all together for the marathon, half marathon, and 5 man relay teams. Kristen wished she could have been there, but she had to work the weekend. I'm sure she would have ran on the team as well.

Our sweet Giovanni. Love him so much.

Before the race. So proud of my Bub.

We walked over to the next street after the race started and saw Ryan there at about the 4 mile mark. He looked great, but didn't see us because he was focusing straight ahead and had his earbuds in with music blasting. We headed down to Main Street and went in to a restaurant that had breakfast. They only had a buffet, which we got. Let's just say it was the absolute worst food ever and we will remember not to go there next year. We were able to see runners as they ran by and into the Canal Park Stadium for the finish. We were amazed that runners for the half marathon were already coming in. The first runner came in at around 1 hour 9 minutes. To run 13.1 miles!! Are you kidding me. Ryan ran by and saw us!! He finished in 1 hour 56 minutes. He had guessed he would run it in around 2 hours, so he did great!!! We tried to get into the stadium, but it was blocked off to cross the street so we had to walk all the way around the whole stadium to get to the other side. Security was so tight that you were not allowed anywhere near the runners' area so we sat in the stands and hoped Ryan would find us since he didn't have his phone with him. We took turns going to look for him. Lisa was texting me to come for a team picture and bring Ryan. Everyone was looking for him.

The finish line.

The runners were all across the field. Hmmmmm. Where's Waldo, I mean Ryan????

It had been like two hours since Ryan finished the race and I had that worried mom feeling in my stomach. I asked Mark if he wanted to go outside the stadium and look for him. I swear we took two steps outside the place and Ryan was standing right there with his silver mylar blanket around him. He had been standing there waiting for us that whole time. I felt so bad for him because his clothes were wet from sweat and he was freezing. We took him back inside and he put his pants and sweatshirt on. We were all so happy to see him and so proud of what he had done for Wo and others with this cancer. He raised $1713.00 for the team and the team as a whole raised over $10,000.00!!! Way to go, Craine's Crew!!

Yay!!! We found him!!!!

We sat for for a while and decided to leave. We had a long walk back to the car and headed for home. My Mom and Dad stayed until late afternoon. Ryan and Stephanie both had to work and the rest of us went to the cemetery to see Wo. My Mom and Dad left to go visit my sister and her family in Delaware, Ohio and watch the OSU game. It was a great weekend, especially for sports fans in our area. OSU, Cleveland Indians, and the Browns all won! What a miracle. In keeping with the sports theme I will leave you with a pic of Wo in her Indians shirt. Thank you for all of your support. I will catch you all later.

Love,
-Pam

Oh, how we miss seeing that smiling face.