Football and golf “widows” have nothing on me! Yes, a wife of an avid football fan has to put up with a screaming couch potato for a few hours a week for seventeen weeks. The wife of a golf fanatic will be hanging solo for a few long rounds during the warmer months. But the spouse of a runner has to deal with a yearlong obsession.
My husband started running for exercise about 15 years ago. It started off with a mile loop around the local park. It then went to two miles, then three. He then took to the streets for longer runs. Soon after that he started to register for 5k races. Still for exercise. Then he began running 5 miles, then ten. It was more than exercise at this point. He was making goals for himself and using his runs to clear his mind. This is when I should have known I was in trouble.
Running (something I rarely do) becomes a way of life for many people. If my husband cannot get a run in after a day or two he becomes cranky! Really cranky!! There also seems to be an “I want more” component to it. He was no longer satisfied with a ten mile run through the neighborhood, he needed a larger goal. So why not run a marathon!
I can tell you “why not ,” it is a long grueling training period, hours away from the family a week, and you are always on edge that there might be an injury. And this is not what the runner has to deal with (they seem to like this torture,) this is what the spouse has to deal with.
I hope I am not sounding like a disgruntled wife, which I am sure I am. I should be grateful that my spouse thinks it is important to stay healthy, and has such a wonderful vehicle for stress relief. But I think it adds to mine. Maybe my negativity stems from jealously that I have not found such a positive passion in my life. Why can’t he be satisfied with a nice walk on the treadmill watching Oprah like the rest of us?
The next installment of “A Runners Wife” will be how the family handles marathon day…and it is not pretty!
In a previous blog, “A Runners Wife” I spoke about my husband training for the NYC marathon. All I have to say is that the months of training all came together of an amazing race. Race day is a grueling day for runners, and the family. But a miracle happened...
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the senate judiciary committee and basically shrugged when asked if any other enemy combatant captured overseas had ever been brought to civilian criminal court to face justice. Talk about an incompetent boob, not to mention a disgrace.
Here is a list of wines all from Spain, and menus from restaurants in Brooklyn where a crew of us did a food / wine crawl through Carrol Gardens and Williamsburg recently
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Football and golf “widows” have nothing on me! Yes, a wife of an avid football fan has to put up with a screaming couch potato for a few hours a week for seventeen weeks. The wife of a golf fanatic will be hanging solo for a few long rounds during the warmer months. But the spouse of a runner has to deal with a yearlong obsession. 
