(Don’t hold that against him!)

I AM a runner!  I LOVE to run.  I NEED to RUN!!! Running is MY thing! MY World! It makes me Happy!

My husband, he is NOT a runner! He tried to be a runner, he even got me started running. We would meet up after work and we ran together except I could not keep up with him. I was ok with that, he ran his pace, I shuffled along as he says. Then, for him, “life” got in the way of us running and me, well I kept running.

Today, I’m still running. I’m happy to say I have graduated from the shuffle and I have found a passion inside me for running.

I live for race-cations because I get to, RUN in different places! My husband does NOT understand why I’d spend so much time researching and planning a running route while on vacation! He just does not get it.

I get the runners high, my husband thinks it’s just something runners say.

I love to run local races.  He doesn’t get why I pay money to run somewhere any other day of the week I could run FREE.

I do my very best to take care of myself by eating right most of the time, putting in the long hours of training so I can be a better runner. He tells me all the time, it’s just one meal, or you can skip this time.

If I don’t get in my run, I’m grumpy.  He’s grumpy when I tell him I got to bet my run in first.

Saturday morning I’m up early so I can get in my long run.  He knows how much I love to sleep and for the life of him,  can’t understand why I’d get up out of a perfectly comfortable bed that early to go for a run.

After a long race, I hurt all over sometimes for days. I can’t even get up from sitting down and don’t even get me started on going down stairs.  I do all this to myself and he thinks I’m crazy when I say I’m doing it again the very next weekend!

I take up over half of our closet and what is mine is mostly filled with running clothes, gear, shoes and socks. I can go into every store in the entire mall and find nothing to wear, but give me one athletic store and I could break the bank! This he does not understand.

I spend most of my extra money from my paycheck and almost all of my part-time job paycheck on entry fees, and everything else that has to do with running, he does not know exactly how much this is and that part, I’d like to keep to myself.

But…..

HE is my biggest fan and supporter!

HE spends hours upon hours listening to me talk about running. The good, the bad and the ugly.

HE may not be at every local 5k,  but for all others, HE is right there with me at the starting line whether that is 5 AM or 8 AM and cheering me on as I come through the finish.

HE has even been known to ride his bike in some of the races, so I don’t have to carry my water bottle.

HE will have supper cooked when I walk in the door from an after work run.

HE does not get running, no not at all; but HE gets me and he knows how much it makes me happy.

And in the end, that is all that matters.