Could Not Be Happier

Something amazing happened yesterday.

I went for a run ... with my ENTIRE family.

Yup, it was pretty sweet. 

As most of you are aware, my bride recently completed the Couch-to-5K program and ran her first 5K. The program worked so well for her that she thought it would be perfect to use to get our two heathens kids more active.

Our kiddos are active ... to a point. Jayson plays baseball nearly year round and mixes in some basketball when he can't get on the ball field. Haylee plays soccer, does gymnastics and cartwheels around the kitchen. But when they aren't doing those activities, they are generally at home, on the couch watching TV or playing video games.

My View From The Sidelines

My bride after her first 5K with some bling!

Saturday was a fun day for me. If you are DailyMile and/or Facebook friends with me or follow me on Twitter, you know I was a wee bit excited Saturday morning as my bride was about to run her first 5K.

When I sent the following post/tweet out - "Today is my bride's first-ever 5K. Don't know who's more excited - me or her. :) #runchat," one of the responses I got back was: "I'm going to say you :)."

Not going to lie, I was thrilled to have my bride of nearly 15 years join the running ranks with me. It's great when you find a partner in life. It's wonderful when you find a good running buddy. But words can not describe how awesome it is to have a your life partner as a running buddy.

Granted, Genople and I run at different paces, and she's not yet ready to log the miles I do on a regular basis. Yet, I don't mind slowing my pace to run with her and tack on a few extra miles with you. Also, my lovely bride noted she liked running with me because it pushed her to try harder and go faster than she otherwise would. Besides, time spent getting fit together is time well spent in my humble opinion.

Once Was Not Enough

Guess what, friends? I'm coming back for more.

That's right; I'm signed up and registered for my second full marathon - the 7 Bridges Marathon on October 21 in beautiful Chattanooga, Tenn.

Not going to lie, I'm still processing the fact that I'm putting my body through this again. For those of you who are like me, you realize this was a no-brainer. I had to sign up for another marathon. I ran one, so why not another, right? See, you get my logic.

Truthfully, I had already begun plotting my next marathon even before I ran my first. In the weeks prior to the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon, I started looking for what my next big race would be and when and where I could find a marathon perfect me. Call me crazy, but I really enjoyed all the training for the marathon and was going to miss it.

Nothing Like Being A Cheerleader

I got to be a part of something truly amazing yesterday.

As many of you know, my lovely bride has been doing the Couch-To-5K program for the past several weeks. She completed the course on Sunday, and her first-ever 5K is this weekend. In the meantime, we are working in a few runs to keep her in shape and ready to go for Saturday's race.

Since the start of the program, I've told her I believed she could complete the 5K in under 40 minutes. I guess I said this enough times that she accepted this as her goal.

On Sunday, Genople came oh so close to hitting that mark, going 3.09 in 40 minutes flat.

Sometimes Rest Is Best

Yep, this is pretty much the flow of my life :-)

It's been six-plus weeks since running my first marathon and I felt the effects for much of those weeks.

Now, I was not injured, and there's nothing major going on with me (I hope and think not). It's just been hard for me to get back up on the horse per sa since covering the 26.2-mile jaunt.

Of course, I kind of rushed back to running pretty quick after running the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon. I *thought* I was easing back into running by training with my bride as she prepares for her first 5K. The pace we ran was much slower than what I normally ran, so it felt easy on my legs.

Buuuuuuuuutttttttttttttttttttttt ...

No matter how fast you run or how slow you go, miles are still miles. And the miles were wearing on me.