Sunday, July 15, 2007

My Super (Real)-Wife

My wife is super amazing and supportive (and sneaky). Without her I wouldn't be able to even try this goofy little quest for a marathon in every state. Heck if I just wanted to run a lot of marathons there are more than enough options just here in the southern half of California to fill up each year. But that is not the topic at hand.

Last Wednesday was my birthday and as usual a week or so before my birthday my wife asked me what I wanted. I told her I could use some new short sleeved shirts for work (exciting stuff, I know). But she being the super supportive one asked me about marathons - "wasn't there something somewhere you could do between now and Marine Corps?" She was worried that I was only going to get in two marathons this year and one of them wasn't really a state.

I got on line and checked the marathonguide.com calendar. The states that looked interesting in August and September were Alaska, Montana or Wyoming. I convinced here that I probably shouldn't push my luck with the foot and that I really could use some shirts. The then asked me about a race in December. I had mentioned a while ago that Joe and Wes were running it and it would be fun to join them. I told her that since the registration for that one was very reasonable, why didn't I just wait to see how things went, and I really could use some shirts.

Well, on Wednesday evening after we got home from Red Robin (my FREE Bleu Ribbon Burger hit the spot), Lisa gave me my birthday gift. She handed me a bag that looked too small for shirts, but with Lisa you never know. It could have been an IOU or a gift certificate. I'm not the easiest guy to shop for, so that seemed reasonable.

The gift was a series of folded sheets of paper with a specific order for opening. The first was registration for a marathon. The second was air fare to said marathon. The third was a string of emails to a fellow blogger working out all the details. It turns out wife had already researched marathonguide.com, my blog, my saved emails, a certain marathon's website and had worked in cahoots with Joe to get me to the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, Alabama. She had taken care of all this before the conversation we'd had about shirts.

So 6 weeks after MCM, I will be heading to state number 11 thanks to my super amazing, super supportive and super sneaky wife. I couldn't "fly" without her.
Joe and Wes I hope to see you at the start and finish line at Rocket City! I guess I'll have to go buy my own short sleeved shirts.

As for this week's mileage, I hit the goal on the dot at 22. I did every run planned just shuffled around a bit. Next week, things ramp back up a little to 29 miles. I've got a quick trip up to Portland on early in the week and hope to get a run in up there on Tuesday night.

12 comments:

Danny said...

That's really amazing that she put all that thought and effort into your gift! Three cheers for your wife!

Wes said...

Suweeeeeet! Another good reason not to try a half IM this year! LOL. Won't that be exciting :-) If you need to come early and need a space to lay over, my home is open to you...

Backofpack said...

Happy Birthday! Birthday marathons are the best - not too mention getting to hang out with Joe and Wes. What a cool gift.

Joe said...

Lisa and I had fun plotting this...yes, she is amazing!!

I'm glad this is working out, Darrell, we'll have fun. Alabama's beautiful in December...or so I hear...or anyway, it's another state!!

yumke said...

Nice to see another blogger running MCM.. i thought we were short in supply.. will be following your progress.

Neese said...

NICE!! you have a super wife indeed! Tell her Greenville next year! :))

Scott McMurtrey said...

Wow! You do have a SuperWife! That is so great. I look forward to seeing your quest in action.

Some shirts would have been really nice though.... :)

Sarah said...

She's a keeper alright! Rocket City has some great reviews on marathonguide.com. You'll have a blast!

Donald said...

What a cool wife! I can't imagine mine ever signing me up for MORE races. Enjoy Alabama!

David said...

Does Lisa have a sister?

Remember about Marine Corps Marathon ... it starts and ends in Arlington, VIRGINIA. You get the district and Virginia in one race.

Rae said...

Sweet!!! I'm going to have to look into driving down for that one! Lots of local runners set great PRs on that course.

Anonymous said...

Been meaning to respond to this. My very first running blog post is about a run I did in Huntsville a few years ago.

You might want to check out the Space and Rocket Center near the Redstone Arsenal. Pretty interesting.