My first marathon is a little more than a week away. My foot/ankle are now pain free when I run. I have trained as much as I could under the circumstances, recovered as much as I could under the circumstances and tried to forget about the huge endeavor I will be taking on as much as I could under the circumstances. As I was driving to the gym this morning I was reflecting on the process and the journey I have been on this year with starting my coaching business and taking on the gigantic tasks of having a Ragnar team this year and training for this marathon. This made me think of my husband Mike. A real partner in every sense of the word. He has put up with a lot. I mean A LOT! I am gone more in the evenings than home now. We rarely have dinner together as a family and the patience and flexibility to be able to meet up with me at various parks or to be home by a certain time has not fazed him much. Maybe he doesn't like doing it, I don't know, but he WILL do it. I have stolen his Saturday mornings for coaching and commandeered Sundays for my personal training. His Monday schedule is adjusted so he is home early enough so that I can go to bootcamp and Thursday nights, while they are pizza nights, they are also my group run night. Although I am generally home to put at least one kid to bed on more than one occasion he has to handle both plus showers. So when I think about this running journey I have been on I can only think of how I could have not done this any way without him. My kids have put up with a lot too but really they only miss out on Mommy for dinner and occasionally a snuggle before bed. Mike has had to put up with his wife literally running out the door as he is pulling in. It is not totally unprecedented that I have stood in the garage in my running clothes waiting. I'll give him a quick smooch then jump in the car to meet my group.
BK (before kids) we weren't morning people. We would lounge around the house on the weekends often hanging out in our jammies into the afternoon. Once we had our kids, although they may have gotten up earlier than we would have liked, they adapted to the lounging on the weekends, watching cartoons and maybe getting dressed around noon. This year since I have been in constant training sleeping in on the weekend is 7am. More often than not we are up and running before the kids even wake up. The cruelest thing that could have happened to Mike was to get up even earlier during the week...and then it did happen. I started taking on private clients and we would meet at 7am twice a week. Yet he complains very little and sets the alarm clock. Sometimes he will go back to sleep with a pillow over his head and it does look just as pathetic as it sounds.
I thought I should think about this as I'm running my marathon. All the sacrifices a family has to make so one person can accomplish a goal. I think in the long run (always a long run) it is worth it. I think it is so important for my kids to see their mom active, train for a goal and finish it and to be there with their mom as I accomplish the goal they have sacrificed for. It becomes a family goal and a family triumph. I will mostly be thinking about Mike though and how much I would rather be with him at that moment. Looking for him and the kids every mile throughout the race will get me through until I see them. I hope the kids are cheering and that Mike is proud of his wife and knows how much she appreciates him and loves him for all the support.
