Sioux Falls Marathon: Running for Mom, Battling Travel Woes

Christopher Riff Browning(MM16116) – #19 was for my mom Bethany Browning. She recently went over to Spain and hiked several sections of the Camino de Santiago with my dad and cousin. We’re very proud of you for accomplishment and glad you’re home. We know how much of a challenge it was and you made it!!

Sioux Falls Marathon was a great race in a nice town. The travel to get there was not…. On Friday the night before I was supposed to leave I got a notification that my flight was cancelled. After staying up most of the night checking to see if they rescheduled, I finally booked with another airline. Thank you United for making it happen. They actually bumped me up to first class on the second flight. I arrived in Sioux Falls later than expected so I did not get to go out and explore. There was a Jason Aldean concert right next the hotel so my sleep was a little interrupted when that let out. Based on the lack of sleep and the exhaustion I decided this was not a PR race. I ended up dropping back to run with a pacer. We had a group of 5 that stuck together through the whole race. It was a great course that followed the river for most of the way. American Airlines decided to move up my departure time so I came back and made it to the airport just in time. We landed in Dallas and were supposed to leave at 7:50. Long story short, we had 7 gate changes and it was delayed by 4 hours. I finally made it home around 4:00 AM. Thank you Katie Ott Browning for the support and taking care of the dogs while I was gone. Next up is three races on back to back weekends. That’s if American Airlines decides to be on time.