Running For Love

Better title than running "from" love right? Haha. This past weekend David and I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in DC. This was David's second full marathon and my second time running this race with him. Running a marathon is hard. Running another marathon with another person the whole time is hard as well! Unless you both run the exact same pace, one person or the other is constantly trying to adjust their stride or pace. It makes sticking together somewhat challenging, but having someone by your side for a whole marathon is really comforting.

My Favorite Person & Running Partner

Back in 2008 I was living in Hillcrest (San Diego's Castro) and heard that they were having a 5K down the street that coincided with Pride Week. How could I pass up a race that I could walk to?? I quickly signed up and talked David into signing up as well. This was going to be his first road race but he was confident. He had played sports his whole life, was in good shape, and was sure to smoke me in the race. Uh huh. Amazingly I came in first in my age group for the first time ever and beat David to the finish line! 

After the Run & Stride With Pride 5K

Our next race was a 15K trail race. We ran the Xterra Mission Gorge 15K. The course was pretty hilly which back then was the kiss of death for me. I stuck with David for most of the race but towards the end as the trail snaked up a never ending hill, I succumbed to walking and David plowed on. 

Xterra Mission Gorge 15K - Ugh Hills!

Soon David became interested in running a half marathon, so we ran the Austin Half Marathon in 2009. If you haven't run this race I highly recommend it! The course is scenic and mostly flat. It has a few moderate rolling hills which slowed me down a bit, but David kept by my side and we finished side by side. Technically my race results showed that he came in first, but if you look at our finish photo my foot hit the mat first! Just not the foot with the timing chip. Darnit. haha.

Austin Half Marathon

After the Austin race we decided to run the Marine Corps Marathon in DC in 2009. As we laid out our training schedule I noticed that our first 20 mile run occurred on a weekend that I'd be in Boston for a tradeshow. I emailed my friends Martin and Meredith (locals) to see what course they recommended we run to get our miles in. Probably not thinking we'd take his suggestion seriously, Martin mentioned that he'd be running a half marathon in Plymouth that weekend and we could always do the race, and then tack on 7 more miles after we finish. Who does that? That's crazy! Oh wait, that's what we ended up doing. And um, it was pouring that day. So we raced 13 miles in the rain, and then plodded on for 7 more. Misery! (Race recap here.)

Plymouth Run to the Rock Half Marathon

A few more months passed and it was finally time for the Marine Corps Marathon! Our plan was to stick together for the whole race, and even with some lagging on my part around mile 19 and cramping on David's part around mile 22, we finished side by side! My dream of finishing a marathon with someone had finally come true. I loved it. (Race recap here.)

 Marine Corps Marathon 2009

After the Marine Corps Marathon I thought I had dreams of David and I finishing every race going forward side by side! Err ... that totally didn't happen. David was fairly turned off after the race and while he felt accomplished, he was more on the camp over "never again" versus "what's next?"  Shoot. I gave up on getting him to race with me for the next year and a half until it came time to register for the Marine Corps in 2011. My friend Christina was urging us to run and totally out of the blue (to me) David said okay, let's do it. And we can run the San Francisco Half Marathon as a warm-up. Huh?! YES!!!

I ended up registering for the San Francisco Full Marathon (since I was an Ambassador and thought it would round out the experience) and David and I planned to run the first half of the race together before I split off to complete the second half alone. We cruised through the streets of San Francisco side by side and up and down the hills (which by now were something that didn't slow me down). After racing alone for so many years, I loved having him next to me mile after mile. (Race recap here.)

San Francisco Marathon 2011

The months flew by between the San Francisco Marathon and the Marine Corps Marathon, and I couldn't believe that it was finally race time this past weekend! David's training hadn't gone quite as planned and he had been running a slower pace than me in his training runs, and anticipated a slower pace for the race. When we discussed running the whole race together again David said there's no way we could, he'd be going much slower than me. For a while I thought shoot, I was hoping that this would be the race where we'd focus on breaking 4 hours! A goal I've been chasing down for several years, but hadn't really focused on this year since I was just coming back to embracing full marathons again. It crossed my mind to run the race on my own, for me .. but then I shook some sense into myself and thought what is wrong with me?! I've spent years dreaming of someone racing side by side with me. I finally found him! And now because he is going to run slower than I want to I'm going to race on my own? Who am I? A selfish only child? Err wait, I am. But - in the end I decided we'd stick together, no matter what the pace. Guess what - it was worth it! Having your favorite person by your side for 26.2 miles is fun, comforting, and heartwarming.

Marine Corps Marathon 2011

Since we ran this for the experience and not for time, my appetite for a sub 4 hour race hasn't been satiated. Because of this I made a silly rush decision a few weeks ago to sign up for a fourth full marathon this year. On December 4th I'll be running the California International Marathon in Sacramento. This will be the closest I've ever done two full marathons, but hopefully my body cooperates and I am able to throw myself back into training. I've never run this race before and have heard good things about it. I'm giving myself the rest of this week to recover and run just for fun, but next week my game face is back on! Four weeks to a sub four hour marathon. I think I can do it. "I think I can, I think I can." - The Little Engine That Could