Running Partners

Kenton and I were so lucky to celebrate our 7th anniversary on Sunday. We had a great weekend, which even included watching most of our wedding video with Judah. Wow! Seven years seems like a life time ago in "married years." However, I had a quick perspective change during my Saturday morning run. Many of the people I run with are several years older than I am and most have been married longer than I've been alive. They chuckled and said, "Seven years? You guys are still newlyweds!" Somehow this conversation got tangled up in the middle of the topic of running the hills of San Francisco (How? Who knows?). But one friend said, "yeah, you still got some hills in front of you"... think San Francisco!"

I laughed, but did not disagree. Marriage is beyond tough at times, it's downright impossible. I chimed in, "Yeah, it's one of those things, just like having children, if anyone really knew how hard it was going to be, they'd never do it." The same friend replied, "And then enough time goes by and you forget and you find your self doing it again" (having kids).

The round table opened up and another runner said, "I think it's the same hormone that makes us forget and train for another marathon. We tell ourselves 'never again', but an amount of time goes by and we start thinking, 'it wasn't so bad.'"

I'm blessed to have crossed many tough finish lines. Some literal, some figurative. I'm happy to be in the "training season" of our marriage, having forgotten all the pain and trials of some of our races. We're in a good place, anxious to run the next race. But having a little bit of experience behind us, we might avoid injury or burnout this time around. And when those hills are in front of us, I'm so happy to feel confident and say "bring it on!" We've climbed these suckers before and as long as we're still moving, even if it's a pathetic crawl, we will finish this race together.

We were kid-less on Saturday night and Sunday. We took advantage and slept in until 10 AM!!!! It was the best thing ever. I'm not sure I've slept that long in over two years.

We hit the road for a 20 mile bike ride together. We're both signed-up for The Salty Dog Triathlon in August. It's a friendly rivalry between us. I've always beaten Kenton in foot races, but he's always beaten me in triathlons. I challenged him to a re-match this summer and I'm feeling pretty good about my chances. Our bike ride on Sunday did show us that I might have some more training to do. It was literally the hottest day of the season, like 105 or something. The faithful Kansas wind was in our face the ride home, so it was a nice challenge. However, a glimmer of hope came through for me in the final mile home. It's a pretty solid down hill stretch with one way traffic. I hovered and hit it with all I had....Kenton couldn't catch me. Now, he claims it was a car that turned too close to him that stopped him up a bit. All I know was I got to the stop light and was waiting on him. Challenge extended!

August 8th will be the deciding day. One of us will walk away with the title "Fastest Triathlete In The House!!"

After we stopped sweating profusely, we cleaned up and went to our favorite restaurant, Tsunami. We shared a quiet late lunch/dinner over fresh salad rolls and coconut curry.

It's good to run this race with a friend.