Deseret News Marathon

On July 24th, my oldest brother Mark came out from California with the other 3 members in his ward's Young Men's Presidency to run the Deseret News Marathon. My entire family was extremely proud of Mark for all the hard work he had put into training. I came back from Evanston for the morning so I could cheer him on; I'm so glad I was able to be a part of this very special day! All of the boys wore red shirts with "Team Organ Donor" on the back. Some people didn't quite get the joke, and thought all the guys had donated organs before entering the race. But in reality, in case they died while running, they wanted their organs to be donated to science. All of the wives wore red shirts too. My sister-in-law Rachel even brought one for me to wear too. Sadly, red was a somewhat common color among the runners, and we all got very anxious whenever we saw a red shirt coming our way. We were situated at the 17 mile mark.

This is the first of "our guys" that came through.

And here's our #2.

He actually ended up finishing first of the 4.

He was doing very well and still pumped for the remainder of the race.

Along came #3:

We waited patiently and Mark finally made it!
His little girls were very excited to finally see him. As were Rachel and I; we were getting worried.
He made it to mile 17 in 3 1/2 hours. Only 9 more miles to go!

Luckily, because of the marathon trail, not only did we see the guys at Mile 17, but we also got to see them again at Mile 20. I was glad to see that even in those 3 miles, Mark's spirits had risen.

Rachel went down and jogged with him for a little bit too.

He had to stop and switch socks and apply a bandaid to his blisters. Once he was done, he bonced back up and went on his way.

This is our #3 guy finishing; his time was 5 hours and 1 minute.
After that, we all just had to wait for Mark.

The marathon ended right where the parade route ended too. It was fun to see the floats, and support the military there. I also enjoyed listening to all of the marching bands too. I was hoping that one would be playing as Mark finished the race, because I knew that would keep him going strong to the very end. And just as I hoped, there was one; he later commented that hearing the band helped him push hard to the finish line.

As the 6 hour time limit approached, Rachel and I went walking down the route to try and find Mark. We finally caught up to him

Just before Mile 26 Rachel asked me to start running with him. I actually got to finish the race with him. It was pretty exciting! I felt at a loss for words when it came to encouraging him; all I knew was that I was super proud of my big brother. The only downside of running was that I couldn't take pictures.

He finished the marathon in 6 hours and 2 minutes!
Here he is getting his time chip removed.

He was pretty excited to lay down and get some water.

All of his friends were there to cheer him on and see him finish.

Here they all are with their greatest cheer team - their lovely wives

Mark and Rachel are the two on the far right.

And here are the 4 marathon runners, proudly displaying their medals!
They all wore them to Church on Sunday

I love my brother Mark. He is great about cheering you on and supporting you in whatever it is you're doing or going through. He loves his family. I love watching him with his little girls. He married an amazing woman and I love the additions that Rachel, Heather, and Katie are to our Biggs family. He is a hard worker and a great example of dedication. He is a wonderful example of a worthy holder of the Priesthood and exercises those responsibilities with the greatest care. I love every opportunity that I have to be with him! Mark, I'm so proud of you!!!