RUNNING TO REMEMBER
First-time marathoner is first across finish line
Nathan Chamer has a history of just showing up.
As the 40-year-old approached the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon finish line without any competitors in sight, announcers weren’t sure what his name was or whether he was even in the right race.
But as Chamer hopped over the finish line banner after having completed the 26.2-mile race, a huge smile plastered across his face, the reason for his anonymity became clear.
“This is my first marathon,” Chamer said. “It’s my debut and it’s electric, man.”
With a time of 2 hours, 33 minutes and 45 seconds, Chamer cruised to the first-place finish, his nearest competition finishing 1 minute and 44 seconds behind.
While it is Chamer’s first marathon, it is not his first time surprising people with his running ability.
A native of Kenya, Chamer arrived in Oklahoma in 2000 with a few hundred bucks and nothing but a promise of a walk-on tryout for the Southern Nazarene University track team.
“I had never run track before,” Chamer said. “But I needed a scholarship to go to school. So I had to give it a shot.”
He blew coaches away and earned a scholarship. That helped lead him to his profession as an intensive care unit nurse at Mercy Hospital. He has several of the best times in SNU track history in various distance running events. Chamer still holds the school record for the 3000-meter steeplechase.
As Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt handed Chamer a glass trophy and put a medal around his neck, Chamer thanked his wife Alena for her support and heaped praise on the crowds who cheered him along the way.
“That’s the Oklahoma spirit,” Chamer said. “The crowd was great and really kept me going. I’m just trying to soak all this in.”
Chamer said he stopped running on a regular basis a few years ago when he and his wife started to have kids. The couple has three all under the age of five.
But just a few months ago, Chamer felt the urge to run and saw the Memorial Marathon as his chance to surprise people again.
“He worked so hard for this,” Alena Chamer said. “He doesn’t ever brag on himself, he just works hard and is a great father and husband. I’m so proud of him.”
Nathan Chamer said he was running around 13 or 14 miles a day before starting his overnight, 12-hour nursing shift.
“I respect the distances,” Chamer said. “You gotta build up your tolerance, and I had a lot of help in my training and just lots of running every day.
“But mostly, I wanted to be a part of this,” he said while extending his arms to the throngs of volunteers, spectators and runners.
When Chamer moved in Oklahoma, one of the first things he learned about was the Oklahoma City bombing. Seeing the devastation and loss of life helped give him a sense of what Oklahomans had been through.
It was a familiar feeling. Two years before he left Kenya, the U.S. embassy bombings claimed the lives of 224 people.
Chamer said seeing the resiliency and determination of the people of Oklahoma City, learning the motto of “Never Forget” and the growth from that inspired him.
“We can run to remember,” Nathan Chamer said. “Just remembering that we can stand against evil and that this city can grow like this, it’s really incredible.”
As Chamer finished interviews with various media outlets, he nearly left behind his glass trophy.
Laughing at himself for forgetting, Chamer thanked the volunteers of the event for their work before picking up his prize and starting to head out with his wife by his side.
“It’s a great story,” Nathan Chamer said before walking away. “Coming from a Third World country and making a living, getting to be a part of this community.
“God is great, and he’s blessed me immensely.”