Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Back to it - fo reals

Alright, time to stop slacking. Back to really running..... and with a partner??

I ran my first race since the marathon this past Saturday. This time though, I didn't run for my own PR, but for my husband's. This was his second 5K and he beat his former time by at least 15 seconds. The course was fairly hilly (I believe his exact words were "This course is bullsh**.") but the weather was beautiful and I think we both ended up having fun. The best part, for me, was having a running partner. But then it got EVEN BETTER - later that same day, we stopped by a running store so I could pick up a new knee band and (gasp!) he decided to buy some serious running shoes.

I'm really trying to hold back my excitement here and I know I am tempting fate, but I think running might kinda actually be developing into a 'we' event. Now, I don't want to pressure anyone into running with me if they're not really into it, but when I timidly suggested we try to run together once a week, he agreed! We did our first 3+ miler together this past Monday! (Around the abandoned prison buildings in our town, a nice sidewalk path that I had previously wanted to try, but had been too chicken to run alone.)

Now, here's the deal - though he has not seriously exercised in years, my husband was a serious high school athlete (baseball) who used to run 5 or 6 miles a day. (For the record, I was a high school athlete too, but considered myself allergic to running.) So, even though he very modestly suggests that maybe one day he'll be able to keep up with me, I know that if he does stick with it, he will quickly surpass my measly 10-minute miles.

So, though I do not dare imagine any couple's marathon training in our future, and I don't have any plans to pressure or guilt him into sticking with it just for me, I will look forward to and enjoy the times he feels like running with me - especially in a race. We already signed up for another 5k next month. Maybe new PRs for both of us - who knows!