Friday, August 17, 2012

Today's Run--No, Wait, Walk (or I Like You as a Friend)

There's a reason why I'm a solitary runner--competition screws up my headspace.* But this morning, when my husband told me he was going for a run, I chirped that I'd like to go along. After our daughter was settled with activities at her day school, we decided the plan was that I would run where I could, he would keep running and double back to do the walks with me. Of course, I felt bad about not bringing the dog.

A fine romance, indeed.

First off--running during daylight in August in Houston means monkey-hot.** I started off matching his pace, and then I quickly reverted to brisk walking the rest of the way. The poor dog was disturbed that Alpha was so far ahead and kept trying to pull me along. Plus other dogs and people to distract. Plus my ankles ached a bit.

Rather than let my inability to keep up send me into a spiral, I'm turning this into a secondary goal. Mister offered to run the first 5K with me, and I said no because I wanted it to be mine. I did agree to let him run the second one in December with me. I've got some work to do so that I don't feel like I'm holding him back.

Mister is pretty good about knowing that I take as long as I take to get something done, and the wisest course is to get out of the way and let me do it. He's also very supportive of most of my projects.

However, during the cool down, Mister said, "This running romance isn't going to work."

For now.***

* For example, I nearly didn't sign up for my first 5K because it was called a "race" instead of a "fun run." That's how messed up I am.
** More specifically, 86 degrees with 107 heat index.
*** Wow, that sounds really psycho, doesn't it?