Behind Every Man...

Of course, the saying I'm talking about is "behind every great man is an even better woman". I hesitated to title this post "Behind Every Great Man" because although I'm am attempting to be a great person I've still got a long way to go and do not think I'm great. But what I can say for sure is that the second part of that saying cannot be more true.

My wife is someone I don't often give enough credit to. With all of my extracurricular activies and the small amount of time I spend at home (mostly in the winter because of school and hockey), it is a wonder she still puts up with me.

And even better yet, she supports me in no matter what adventure or crazy idea I might come home with. I truly don't feel as though I deserve someone as good as her. But I sure am glad that she is my wife.

Today I ran the Johnstown Marathon. I didn't have a countdown clock, I didn't broadcast it very loudly, telling very few people. My concept behind doing it was to see if I could somehow qualify for Boston on my home course. Being that I'm scheduled to run Richmond, VA in six weeks this was intended to be a test more than anything. I figured I'd go out and see how I felt. Since I needed a long training run anyway, I would go as far as I could holding a BQ time and if it fell apart, I'd pull back and simply use it as a training run.

My uncertified time is 3:33:05. I still await the official results, but it won't be that far off of that time. Today was my sixth marathon. Today was my third worst time, but my third best time. I held onto BQ for about 17 1/2 miles and despite doing so, I felt as though I had some heavy legs last night and that haunted me all day.

But this post is more about my wife than about me. Today she got up with me around 6:45 and made me my normal marathon day breakfast of one and a half bagels with peanut butter and jelly (if available). Since I was at home, it was nice having a toasted bagel and yes, we had jelly. Despite having her own things to do today it didn't stop there. She rode to the starting line with me and took my traditional pre-race picture. But she also went out ahead of me, meeting me at mile 5, mile 10, shortly after mile 16 and again at mile 22. She provided me with opened Powergels, and had water and Gatorade ready for me. She was there for me, helping me do what I wanted to do. Running a marathon and trying to qualify for Boston. She supported me; just like she always supports me and for that I love her dearly. We're definitely an odd couple. We have lots in common, but we also are different in so many ways. She goes far beyond what she should for me.

I should have called this post, and Ode to a Great Woman.