Yesterday I participated in the 6th annual Pat Tillman foundation 4.2 mile run at the ASU Sun Devils Stadium!
The Pat Tillman Foundation provides resources and educational support to veterans, active service members and their dependants.
The Tillman Military Scholars program aids all veterans and specifically the ever-growing population of veterans and dependents of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
Here's a little more history about Pat Tillman:
The day after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Pat told a reporter in an interview, “At times like this you stop and think about just how good we have it, what kind of system we live in, and the freedoms we are allowed. A lot of my family has gone and fought in wars and I really haven’t done a damn thing.”
In 2002 he told the AZ Cardinals that he had decided to place his NFL career on hold to become a U.S. Army Ranger with his brother, Kevin giving up a 3.6 million dollar contract.
Pat and Kevin joined the U.S. Army in July of 2002, committing to a three-year term.
On the evening of April 22, 2004, Pat’s unit was ambushed as it traveled through the rugged, canyon terrain of eastern Afghanistan.
His heroic efforts to provide cover for fellow soldiers as they escaped from the canyon led to his tragic death via fratricide.
Here me and the boys are before the run! I ran the 4.2 mile run while the boys did the 0.42 kids run!
While his AZ Cardinals jersey number is 20, when he played for the
ASU sun Devils his number was 42. This is why the run was 4.2 and the kid run was 0.42 both ending on the 42 yard line in the
ASU stadium in his honor.
The had a record breaking 28,000 runners come and run yesterday! It was so much fun as we ran in down town Tempe!
Both mascot's from the Sun Devils and the Cardinals lead the race!
While seeing 28,000 people come and honor Pat Tillman what was really special was seeing the military men come and honor him!
Here is a picture of some soldiers getting ready to run wearing full gear including their packs. At one point I ended up passing them during the run and as I did I could hear and see people all around patting them on the back or saying thank you for serving our country.
The back side of our racing shirts!
Me and Adria! This was her first run and she did awesome! She now wants to run the half marathon with me in January! Our friend Kristi was there too, but because of the number of people I didn't see her until after the race! Oh well some many people and so much fun I even improved my running time!!!
When Andrew found out I was doing another race he asked if he could run too, so I signed him up for the Kids run and than of course Hunter and Parker both wanted to run as well. I am so proud of my boys for wanting to get out there and run it was a great experience for them!
They said that there were 3,000 kids signed up for the kids run which started them at the starting line like I did and took them to the same finish line in the stadium.
It was a great day, lots of fun and such a great way to honor a fallen hero.
Happy 9th Birthday Andrew!!!
We had 9 crazy fun boys over for a pizza party sleep-over!
The best thing about boys we didn't have to plan games...all they wanted to do was play outside...and they made sure every gun, sword and light saber we owned was out there with them for one awesome battle!
Don't forget the Spongebob pinata!
Present time!!!
This Nerf gun here shoots like 30 darts and 2 missiles...I bet the boys wished this gun was at the park earlier for their battle!
Money Money Money!!!
Don't get the cheese touch!
Make a wish!
After cake we had a big game of hide n seek in the dark...but the person who was it wore night vision goggles...the boys loved it!
So after almost putting the kids in to a sugar coma with the pizza, soda, cake, candy, and games we settled down to watch Andrew's new movie "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid"...most of the boys had seen it already so it was funny listening to them talk about each part coming up and how funny they thought it was!
