My Husband the Marathoner

Something CRAZY just happened in the Hahn House.

The husband registered for his first marathon. The husband, and I quote, thinks "marathons are stupid."

HE'S GOING TO RUN 26.2!

Years and years ago, he told me he would run one marathon, and that would be Rome, and we arbitrarily picked 2020 as the year to do that together. He's always maintained that he would be one and done and he would have a great time in a beautiful city doing it.

Well.....

I think he cooked up this idea while I was racing Mississippi Gulf Coast. When he saw that I was going to Boston qualify, he started thinking about running Boston with me, but as a charity runner. As soon as I was done with that race and had caught my breath, he told me this crazy idea, and I was so excited.

Come to find out that it's not quite so easy getting picked as a charity runner, plus they start in a different wave than where I would start, so we couldn't run together if he was a charity runner. So that plan started to evolve into something even crazier.

He's going to try to QUALIFY for Boston and run it with me. Boston 2019 happens to be 3 weeks before our 20th anniversary, making it extra special.

So, the man who says marathons are stupid, who's never run longer than 2 hours and 3 minutes, is going to run 26.2 miles on July 29. He needs a 3:25 to qualify and will be shooting for a 3:20.

He's a great runner, but has only raced long distance once, a half marathon back in 2009, at a 7:50 pace while injured and on relatively low mileage (fast bastard). He has run several half marathons since then, but always with me or in training. Talk about an awesome and inspiring leap of faith!

I get to be his coach, and over the last two months I've been helping him build up his base miles and endurance, knowing he was thinking about taking on this challenge. He's up to 30 miles per week already, and provided he stays consistent and healthy, we will get him over 50 miles per week as we approach summer. Yes, a Texas summer spent running 50+ mile weeks, which will only serve to make him even stronger on race day.

I'm so excited about the opportunity to coach another runner to a Boston Qualifying time, or at least die trying! To take on the challenge of doing this for a new marathon runner will be even more exciting. If I didn't think he was a strong enough runner, I wouldn't want to do this, but my husband is pretty damn incredible. He has the discipline and focus to stick to a schedule, he's fast, he saw how hard I worked to hit my goal and the commitment doesn't scare him. All those factors are huge in order to pick such a lofty goal for a first marathon. He chose a downhill marathon, with a gradual downhill that will hopefully not destroy his legs but instead give him that extra boost to achieve his goal.

We have 5 1/2 months to work on this.

BQ or Bust!