Nate's 1st Full Marathon

It's only been 1.5 years since Nate started running regularly and training for races, and he's now accomplished a full marathon! I must admit I was a little worried about how he would do because he didn't stick to his training plan as religiously as I think he should have and didn't do much cross-training. His goal was just to finish, and he did it in 5:31:47.

This is only the 2nd year of the Layton Marathon, so there were only about 300 runners and not great support from volunteers and aid stations compared to other marathons. By the time Nate got to the finish line all they had was water. Lame!

I had some obligations that morning, so he was a lot farther into the race than I would have liked before we were able to find him and cheer him on along the way. My sister Megan came to cheer him on along with me, Bridget, and Felicity (okay, Felicity didn't do much cheering but I'm sure she would have if she could).

The picture on the top left is where we first saw him around mile 23. He was in great need of encouragement at that point, so I'm glad we were able to be there with our signs to cheer him on. The picture on the bottom left is Bridget joining him the last little bit before the finish line. She's been begging to run a "Kids K" for months now, so we hoped this would make her happy until we can get her signed up for one at some point in the future. And the large picture is, of course, after it was finally over.
He said his biggest issue during the race was that the arches in his feet cramped up - something he'd never experienced before and didn't know what to do about it.

I'm proud of him for finishing, although I wish he'd keep his promise that it was his first and last. Oddly enough, he started talking about doing another one in the future less than 24 hours after finishing this one. So much for that promise! Then he changed his promise to not doing another one while we have little kids.

Way to go Nate!