Friday, November 1, 2013

Meet my husband

The weekend I met my husband, Christian, we ran a 10k together -- the Rio Rancho Dash for Trash.  He lived in Colorado and I lived in Iowa, so the altitude in New Mexico was making me slow.  We were at a college kid job interview weekend for Intel and the previous day he'd gone running with my friend who ran cross country for Iowa State.  She found the race and talked us into entering it with her.  She won the women's race, Christian ran at my pace so he could stay with me, and the rest is history.

Christian's always been like a big dog who needs to be exercised all the time.  He played rugby and ultimate frisbee in college.  He'd show up for afternoon seminars drenched and filthy after running up to South Table Mountain from campus.  Here he is running the Boulder Backroads, his first half marathon, when our oldest was a tiny baby.


When we moved to Texas and had a ton more kids, it was very easy to rationalize our way into not running any more.  It's hot here.  Compared to Colorado it seemed like there was nowhere to run.  I needed his help with the kids more and more in the mornings and evenings.  He finally got back into running late last year and set a goal of doing another half marathon.  In college he'd always run in the late afternoons, but anyone who stays at home with kids knows that the pre-dinner hours can be very trying, so I asked him not to do any post-work running.  He was trying to figure out how to train for distance and still have me like him at the end of the day.  

One of our friends is a super marathoner and also has a busy job and a family.  He would post when he would run at 5 a.m. on facebook all the time with lyrics to a song.  My morning-hating husband decided that if this guy could do it, so could he.  One new headlamp later, his cell phone alarm could be heard going off on the quietest setting at 4:45 most mornings.  In April he finished the Davy Crockett Bear Chase half marathon in just under 2 hours, almost 7 minutes faster than the one he'd done years ago.


Christian's new goal is to be an ultrarunner and his goal race is a 50k this December.  Up until now he wouldn't let me use the ultrarunner label on him.  Today he did a 27 mile training run.  While he's still never raced an ultra, I think if your training runs are longer than a marathon I get to call you an ultrarunner.  I'm so glad to have someone so supportive of my training and helping me set a great example for our kids.

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