Bold Moves
Sweetheart 5k
There are many things Hubby and I share and one of them is NOT making a big deal about Valentine’s Day. We don’t get each other cards or make a big deal out of it because we try to make every day of our marriage special. Not that every day is like a romance movie or super special; we just try to communicate or show our love for each other all the time rather than on one day.
In Jan I was scrolling through the next few months deciding what races to run. I wanted to add shorter races into my schedule to use as speed training for my longer races. This year Valentine’s Day fell on a Sat which meant there were a lot of 5k races that weekend. I casually mentioned to my generally non-running Hubby, “Hey, there’s a Sweetheart 5k in Overland Park, wanna do it together?” I fully expected him to say no as he usually does but this time he looked up from the DVD he was watching and said, “Sure!” I stopped and stared at him. “Umm, really??” I stammered. I continued thinking I’d better not give him time to recant. “We could do an interval thing like when we go to the lake.” “Ok, that sounds good,” he smiled and returned to his DVD. “Ok, I’m registering now!” I didn’t waste any time getting us registered as a team on the 5k’s website.
As the day approached our weather turned very cold. I was hoping that we wouldn’t be out there in 12 deg or we’d both be miserable. This would be Hubby’s first race ever and I wanted it to be a positive experience. By race day morning it was 38 deg, cold but not horrible.
It was fun watching all the folks show up for the race. I’d forgotten how many people enjoy wearing costumes for 5k races! Soon we were out at the start line with nearly 1,000 other runners and walkers. They started in waves and thanks to Hubby’s height he was able to tell me when each wave set out. Finally it was our turn and off we went, running our first race together! I fully expected to do our normal run/walk interval thing because that was our normal deal when we went to the lake trails. So as we crossed the start I activated my Garmin and as we turned the corner a few blocks away I told Hubby to just let me know when he wanted to start our walk interval. He nodded ok. We were running a bit faster than normal but he seemed ok so I didn’t say anything. We passed the 1 mile marker and asked if he wanted a walk break and he said no. “I’m ok, let’s keep going” he spoke between breaths. At the 1.5 mile point we approached the water station. I gave him instructions to run through, grab the last cup and then move over to the side and walk to drink. He did exactly that. I assumed we’d start the walk break there but nope! After a quick drink he set off again!
I started to chat mindlessly from that point on, it was obvious that he wanted to run the full 5k and I wanted to make sure that he did it w/o injury so I tried to keep his pace steady and occupy his brain so he wouldn’t think about the pain. We took a quick walk break at the 2.6 mi point for about 15 seconds. In the last stretch you could see the park and I kept telling him how close we were. As we turned left into the park for the last tenth of a mile we hit quite a head wind. I went into full cheerleader mode at that point, saying every positive and encouraging thing I could think of to keep him going.
We crossed the finish line together and it was the coolest thing ever! My Hubby had back surgery years ago and the reason we do interval runs is because it hurts his back to do more. Even so, he remains my biggest supporter and greets me at every marathon finish. Now for the first time, we were finishing a race together. It was amazing.
After we crossed the finish, I guided him to the nice lady who cuts off the timing chip, and the next nice lady who gave us our medals, and on we went. As we made our way over to the refreshments, I turned to him and said, “Great job honey; I love you so much and I am so proud of you!” He smiled widely and replied, “I love you too…and if that (points to race finish) doesn’t prove it, nothing will!” Indeed.
Best Valentine’s Day ever!
