Just a few short weeks after I met my husband, Matt, he completed the Houston Marathon in 2006. I was completely inspired and impressed. At that time, I had just completed my very first half marathon in 2005. Needless to say, I felt the inspiration to train for a marathon as well.

Matt and I enjoyed running together and obviously fell in love. We got married in the spring of 2007 and decided that we would run a marathon together in our first year of marriage. I was so excited to be working toward that goal and trained hard. Matt trained as well, but found it difficult to get enough long runs in due to his long commute to work.

We toed the line at the Myrtle Beach marathon in 2008. I was in trouble before I even started with a really bad case of iliotibial band syndrome. Matt was feeling his lack of thorough training. At that time, I don’t think either of us really knew exactly how to train anyway. We were just doing our best to get the miles in. After I finally hobbled through the finish line at a much slower pace than I had hoped for, I waited patiently for Matt to show up.

Eventually, a friend came to get me because Matt had dropped out around mile 18. He was hurting pretty bad and decided it wasn’t worth injuring himself. Clearly, he is smarter than me.

After that, Matt ran some half marathons and some shorter races, but his running would come and go.

The fall of 2019 changed everything. Something sparked in him and he announced that he would run the Columbia Marathon in 2020. Of course, I was in total support of that, but wasn’t sure how it would work. Not only does he still have a long commute to work, but we now have five children that we didn’t have when we trained for Myrtle Beach.

I wrote him a training program and somehow, he completed almost every single training run. His dedication was such that he would wake up at 4AM to get to work early so that he could fit a run in around family dinners and kids’ activities. Sometimes he ran early in the morning, sometimes in the middle of the day, and sometimes as it was getting dark on cold winter nights. That, my friends, is a runner’s life.

As his training progressed, we worked together on nutrition to optimize his performance. While it can be difficult to set a time goal for first time marathon runners and those who are returning to marathons after a long break, we worked to find the best pace and game plan for the big day.

This past weekend, on March 7th, he made a huge comeback! Not only did he complete the marathon, but he achieved a personal record with 4:14:57 at the age of 46. Think about that. He is fourteen years older than when he completed his last marathon, and he IMPROVED his time!

Let that sink in.

The next time that you feel too old to do something new, get back into old but good routines, smash your own records, or strive for something better, think again!

This is one of the reasons why I love being in the running community. There are so many reasons to be inspired. There are so many reasons to feel like you are capable of more.

I am incredibly proud of Matt and inspired by his success.

Matt high-fiving some of our kids around mile 24.

Columbia Marathon: My husband's story...a runner's life