Feb 15, 2012 Marathons and Marriage ---- Boston 2012

Marriage is a lot like running a marathon

Today, my husband John and I celebrated our 20 year anniversary.  I have learned that marriage like running is something that you constantly have to work on in order to improve it.  There are always going to be good days and great miles combined with bad situations and failed workouts.  Its learning to take the good and the bad and weave them into an All-Star performance that takes both of you to another level.  

I consider myself fortunate in that my husband and I both share a passion for running.  We both started running early into our marriage and have kept it up ever since.  Aside from marathons, we rarely participate in the same race together.  We enjoy cheering each other on the side lines for the shorter distances.  The long training runs have proven to be good therapy for resolving ongoing issues or to put together family vacations, discuss finances and talk about home improvement plans.  We have been running together for 15 of our 20 years of marriage so we have worked through quite a bit in this time frame.  

We are a good complement to each other both in our workouts and our daily lives.  I am a morning person who loves to workout as soon as I get up and John likes to roll over and hit the snooze.  I am a type A personality who likes to plan things way in advance and John is more spontaneous and takes everything in stride.  Our different running habits and personalities support each other.  The things that we both feel very strongly about and agree on most of the time are our faith and love of God, our family and the way that we raise our children and the support we have for each other.  It hasn't always been smooth sailing but we are committed to working things out and spending our entire lives together.  I have found that it is doing the little things for each other that builds a strong foundation to help you get through the tough times.  

I am not sure how many miles we have run together or how many marathons we have completed, but I do know that running has brought us closer together.  It has given us countless hours of uninterrupted time to spend together and opportunities to continue to learn about the other person.  

Every time I run, I have a plan of something that I am going to work on or do better so that I become a better runner and each day when I get up, I think about one thing that I am going to do for my husband to make his day better or more complete in an effort to make myself a better spouse and mother.  Both of those activities have served me well over the years.  I am looking forward to many more years of marriage to my loving husband.  May we continue to run many more miles together on our life journey of marathons and marriage.