Bride-to-be Blogger Leslie: My Marathon Weekend


This past weekend, I completed something I had been working towards for a long time.

I ran my first marathon.

This is something I have always wanted to accomplish — a goal that I have dreamt about for a long time. It has been something that I had always been afraid of. Running 26.2 miles always seemed like too far, like too much of a commitment, too much for my body to handle.

But I trained for it, worked hard for it, and aimed high for my goal. And this past weekend, I ran my first marathon with my entire family cheering me on.

This was a big deal for me this weekend, not only because it was my first marathon — but because it was also the first time my family and Charles’ family had traveled together. Both of our families decided months ago to come support my first marathon and make a long weekend trip to Chicago out of it. I had never been there before, so I was pumped!

Luckily, I wasn’t nervous about our two families coming together for this (dare I say, monumental?) occasion. I didn’t even realize its importance until I got home this week and thought to myself, “Both our families just went on a vacation together! How fun is that?”

With my family in Northern Virginia, and Charles’ family in South Jersey, our families rarely get to spend much time together as a group. Usually Charles and I are down in Virginia spending a weekend with just my parents, or meeting up with his for dinner in Center City. With the two-and-a-half hour distance between our childhood homes, it’s hard for everyone to get together, so this was a welcome change.

It was so nice to see both our families in one place together!

{Side Note: Did you know that our parents never met before we were engaged? They met a few weeks after our engagement to celebrate the good news! Any readers have similar situations like that?}

Throughout the weekend, I was so excited and thankful that everyone was able to make the trip out to Chicago to support me in running my first marathon. Having both our families there made the experience even more amazing than it already was.

Hopefully we can all find more time to get together as a group in the near future. It’s so nice having everyone together.

So now, tell me about YOU! Do your family and in-laws live in the same area, or far apart? How do you deal with splitting time between them? Have you experienced traveling together as one big family?

For more information on my wedding planning and healthy living for brides, please check out my other blog, And Her Little Dog Too.

Getting married? Start and end your wedding planning journey with Philadelphia Weddings' guide to the best wedding vendors in the city.