Nate's First 13.1

On a whim last weekend, I signed up to run the Haunted Half 13.1 that was yesterday.  I bought a friend's spot for just $20 (score!).  That's the way to do it!  But, I was unfortunately hit with a pretty nasty case of the flu on Thursday.  It's been awful!  On Friday evening, it was pretty clear that I would NOT be running 13 miles the next morning.  I was SO disappointed!  I had been chatting with my running friends about costumes, and we had plans to all run together.  I was sort of kidding, but I turned to Nate and said, "You wanna run it for me?"  He shocked me by saying Sure!  I couldn't believe he was so willing!  He has only run 9 miles before.  He went and picked up my race packet.  Usually you aren't really supposed to just run in someone's place like that (without officially switching bib numbers, like I did with my friend.  We went through the right channels to get her spot), but I figured this was okay since it was technically Nate's money that had paid for it, and he's my husband, not some random runner.

So....Nate ran a half marathon yesterday!!  And he rocked it!  And he loved it!!  Woohoo!  I am SO excited for him!  I should make him sit down and blog about the race, but he probably won't, so I'll try to journal it for him.

He met up with Cindy, Susette and Josh, who are members of a fantastic Facebook running group that we are a part of.  They took the bus to the top of Emigration Canyon (my canyon!).  Nate dressed as a vampire (best he could do on short notice), Cindy was a witch, and Josh....well Josh's costume is a funny story.  He went as a "runner with all of the classic running problems".  Chafed, bloody nipples and the runs.  He used chocolate syrup and ketchup.  So gross, but so hilarious!  We spent most of Friday planning his costume, and I have not laughed that hard in a long time.

Nate called me around mile 5, when he was almost out of the canyon, so Cameron and I drove up to the post office to cheer them on.  Nate looked and sounded great!  The group stayed together and wasn't stressing about pace, just having fun.  I think this was wise for his first race.  No pressure.  It was so fun to see the group!  I wanted to talk to them more, but obviously they needed to keep running!

Nate said that it got a little hilly after they left the canyon.  He ROCKS and is a really strong hill runner, so he ended up pulling ahead of everyone else around Mile 10 and finished with a time of 2:12.  Not bad for his first double digit run!  I am SO SO proud of him!  He's going to kill it on Thanksgiving when we do another half.  He was a little sore yesterday and really tired, but he was pumped.  I think he's starting to see why I'm so hooked on running!  It's such an awesome sport, and I'm so glad it's a part of our lives now.

Good job, Nate!!!

Heading over to high five Cameron!  Looking strong at the halfway mark!!  The cute lady in the orange/black striped pants is Cindy.  She ran Nebo with me, and she was so sweet to run with Nate.  I LOVE our running friends!

Oh poor Josh is having a tough race!  ;)  This guy is hilarious, my running friends are awesome!