Running is in His Blood

Saturday, March 2, 2019, Palmer Jett Smith, age 13, completed his very first marathon (26.2 miles). He ran a sub 4-hour marathon (in 3 hours 57 minutes, 6 seconds), and finished first in his age group. He ran a 9:03 pace and finished in the top third of all the runners that finished.

He completely surprised me. I knew he could run at that pace, but I didn't know that he could sustain it over the entire 26 miles. To be perfectly honest, I thought he would have been closer to a 4:30 or maybe even 4:45 finish or worst of all a DNF, but just like the Energizer Bunny, he just kept going and going and going (even though, he has no idea who/what that is).

He still doesn't fully realize what he's accomplished yet, and may not for many years, but he joined his older brother and sister in an elite group of people that have completed a full-marathon (approximately 1 out of 200 or .05%).

Proud of this guy. Proud of all of our kids. But this was a huge, defining moment since he fought with me regularly during his training regiment. A born negotiator that tested my patience on many occasions, but he earned it and exceeded all my expectations. At the end of the day, he put in the hard work and got the prize. Congrats!

He finished so far ahead of me (almost 20 minutes), not one of my better runs, that he actually came back out after he finished, and ran the last 200-300 yards of my race with me. He then presented me with my medal.