That's the text from my wife that is kick-starting me back into training. We've got a tag-team style of parenting between my weekly travel and her working nights and weekends where, unless we're both training for something at the same time, it's hard to make time to support the other in their journey.
When I was getting into bike racing and triathlon back in '08 and '09, we had just one child. I'll admit that I was putting a LOT more time into training and competing than she was, but she was still running and working out with her own goals at the same time.
Two-kids-within-16-months later, our fitness goals went mostly out the window in the sleep-deprived haze of raising babies. I still finished a 70.3 and met a few other fitness goals along the way, but nowhere near as much as I wanted. She, obviously, sacrificed much more than I did and it took embarrassingly long for me to realize that.
Which brings me to the last two years. I've all but given up on signing up for anything endurance related. Our schedule is crazy just with trying to balance our own work schedules, let alone adding in the kids' activities at an exponential rate. We were both active children ourselves and want nothing more than for our kids to be active and happy and involved, which is why we promote and encourage their involvement at the expense of our own "free time." We cancelled our dusty and expensive gym membership long ago in lieu of getting our own treadmill (which we paid off within 5 months of our saved gym membership dues). I built up my own little DIY home gym and got into body weight training as an answer to my busy travel schedule and needing to be able to workout wherever I could.
Wife was able to run the DisneyWorld Marathon in 2014, but not at 100%. She came down with pneumonia right in the middle of her peak training which made her go into the race nearly cold turkey. But it was all pre-paid already and she wasn't going to waste a trip to Disney. She got up early with her running mates and decided to just run until she couldn't do it anymore...but she finished! AND she got some great photos with Disney characters along the way during her walk breaks.
I still run once or twice a week with my trusty training partner, Dixie the dog, but haven't run more than 10k in two years.
The wife and I have talked here and there about getting back into things. She's disappointed with her Disney marathon luck and just plain wants to get back into shape. She knows my passion for all things sport and knows how dangerous of a trigger it is to send documented permission to sign up for something as big as a marathon.
But I signed us both up. We might run together, we might not. The intent is to train-together-but-not-together most of the time, but moreso to tackle this and learn how to both train for something and accomplish personal goals without sacrificing the million other family obligations. The medal won't just signify our ability to finish a marathon; we both know we can do that individually. It will signify a new accomplishment done together in our marriage.
So, here's to Day 1.
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