Fit’n'Food Scoop: My Husband Kicks My Butt

No, despite the subject line, this isn’t a post about spousal abuse.

Back when I first started blogging, I did a post looking for a nickname for my husband, since I wanted to save his anonymity.  As you can see, I tossed out several options, including Zucchini, Manimal, and Sheldon.

None of them stuck.

Now, however, I know what his alias should be, and I hereby introduce you to…

PRE.

That’s “Pre” as in Steve Prefontaine, multi-record-setting runner.

I have dubbed him Pre because after ten years of blissfully sleeping in while I went out for long marathon training runs… my husband has become a runner.

He kept it from me at first.  I’d roll out of bed early on a weekday morning and see no sign of him, though his car was still there.  I’d imagine he was walking Riley, but Riley would still be in the house.  I didn’t think much of it — he could have been getting something from the garage, or fixing a sprinkler — anything, really.  I’d hop on my computer and do my morning e-mail check, and by the time I was done he’d be in the shower, finished whatever it was he was doing.

Then one morning I caught him coming back into the house.

Sweating.

“What were you doing?” I asked.

“Um…” he replied sheepishly, “I was just… you know… going for a run.”

Pretty sure streamers exploded out of my head, and I may have even launched an impromptu parade.  My husband was a runner!!!!!

Immediately I began a mile-a-minute babble-fest covering everything from walk/run ratios to nipple guards.  And I signed him up for a 5K.

This was why he’d been cagey about his new hobby; he was afraid I’d make a huge deal out of it.

He was right.

Every Hanukkah gift Pre received from Miss M and I was running-oriented.  We outfitted him with a Timex Ironman watch with interval timer, an entire Cool Max wardrobe, a Spibelt, the iMapMyRun app, and training books by Jeff Galloway and Chi Running’s Danny Dreyer.

Here’s the fascinating thing: while I’ve been a runner for ten years, I’m still not one of those people who needs to run.  I love exercising, but I can be happy going for a hike, doing a boot camp class, even hopping on the elliptical at the gym.

Pre?  He’s a runner.  He’s dedicated.  He’s out there almost every morning, knocking out a 5K loop followed by 8 minutes of abs.  (And in true guy fashion, he’s already sporting a three-pack while I’ve been at the exercise-six-days-a-week thing for ten years, and still have more pooch than pack.)

Pre’s even breaking into my stash of energy bars because he’s “craving the protein.”

It’s kind of a major turn-on.  If it lasts, we can even run marathons together one day; we just have to enlist another relative to watch Miss M.

So now I turn it to you: ever had a spouse/significant other adopt one of your favorite hobbies?  Were you thrilled about it?  Did it bring you closer together?  And did he or she stick with it long term?

Pre does his first 5K next week.  I think he’ll love it.  I hope he’ll love it… I’m already signing him up for his next one!