I never thought I would write a post titled: when two runners live in one house. I feel lucky that my spouse and I can share such a fun and enjoyable hobby.
We actually met through running. We were on neighboring college cross country teams, and one day we ran into each other in my tiny college town. Our first few dates were runs. When we went out to eat for the first time, I knew things were real. Fast forward a few years and many Timehop memories ago, and here we are today.
We both still run, and occasionally we still run and race together. Certainly, not all of our runs are together or even half, but we do run together once or twice a week.
So what does it mean, When Two Runners Live in One House?
Here are some common thoughts and phrases that have been said in our household…
Let’s go on vacation and, oh my gosh…a net downhill half marathon. I’ll do it if you do it…
When Two Runners Live in One House, dates might include Workout Wednesday to the track.
When Two Runners Live in One House…There are three different foam rollers on our nightstand. These days there is the Addaday BioZoom Massage Gun or even the Sidekick Swerve Tool Review.
When Two Runners Live in One House…There are three different laundry modes.
- Socks and underwear
- Running clothes
- Normal clothes
Long runs are together whether one is biking or we are slogging at LOLZ pace. I feel lucky my spouse biked with me for my virtual half marathon.
Birthdays are easy: more running gear, please.
When Two Runners Live in One House, a fairly common Friday night phrase is: Sorry, I’m going to eat my typical prerace dinner and breakfast. I plan to go to bed at 8 pm and wake up at 4…that’s a normal and common occurrence.
Travel races in our house mean travel diners too.
When Two Runners Live in One House…There is an explosion of shoes at the front door, the front closet, and the bedroom closet. There is never room without shoes.
We love being able to run together and support each other’s goals. We don’t run every run together or even half, but it’s nice to run together and have a hobby we both enjoy.
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Questions for you:
Do you and your significant another share a hobby?
How many pairs of running shoes do you own?
My fiance is also a triathlete, and once we combine households later this year, I can imagine we will have many similar tales. It is nice, for sure, to have somebody who understands your priorities and lifestyle as an athlete.
I agree that it’s definitely nice to have someone who understands your lifestyle.
Hahaha I think this is so cool!! It’s awesome that you guys have a similar passion. I bet it makes it easier to understand each other! Alex is mostly a vegetarian which I didn’t think would really make a difference when we first started dating but now I realize how much something small like that makes a HUGE difference in our day to day lives! I think differences can keep a relationship interesting but it’s nice to have a few big things in common!
We’ve actually talked about how hard it would be to cook separate meals all the time. I’m glad you both have found a balance of what works for you!
I can completely relate. Between the running shoes and bikes in our home we could open a store!
We too, often organize vacations around athletics! It’s an “excuse” to run somewhere new which is always awesome (and it helps that we are on the same page!)
The biggest deal in our house is the vast volume of laundry that we create. It is astonishing….
I don’t think I could handle the laundry from 2 runners. Oh wait, my husband does his own laundry — I told him he was doing it before I came along; I do the sheets, towels, pet paraphernalia — you can do your own.
But it would be nice to have him really get it. 🙂
I love this! I’m the runner and my husband is the, eh occasional maybe I’m a runner,kinda guy and also occasionally mumbles something about me running too much (what?!) lol I definitely have the upper hand, or foot, on the shoe front. 😉
This is so sweet! Love it! I finally got Dan to start running earlier this year, and he’s a convert. He hated it at first but now he even runs without me. I think he’s going to stick with 5ks for a while and maybe work up to a 10k eventually, but I’m just happy he’ll go for runs with me and do races! It’s the best. Right now I have 4 pairs, but 2 are ready to be thrown out! NEED TO REPLACE THEM NOW
All of this is so accurate. I mean, I don’t live with Tim but we absolutely plan trips around where the best biking is. I leave a lot of my biking gear at his apartment so it’s slowly being taken over. If we had to combine all of our running shoes into one apartment it would get ugly!
I think it’s really awesome that you both share that common ground! Makes it so much easier to understand where the other person is coming from. I can’t imagine that amount of laundry, though 😛
Hahah love this! It must be fun having your significant other be into what you’re into!
I love this. How awesome that you guys share the same love of this sport!! I wish my husband was into it, but he isn’t. However, I think I have the next best thing because he is SUPER supportive and proud of what I do! He never questions pre race meals and eats them right along with me, and know that most likely our vacations are “let me quick run this marathon and then we can go do XYZ”. He knows better than to mix my running clothes in with the normal laundry, and he knows never to move my running sneakers for fear that he will mix up the new ones with the retired ones. I wear my Brooks PureConnect down pretty quickly that I often have multiple pairs of the exact model/color lying around 🙂
hah yup! boyfriend and i met running, i was working at a running store and he was a pacer for the run club there. we both ran the same race and when he finished and took his shirt off i was like “yup. i want that on me.” hahahaha BUT we can’t run together! I get SOOO anxious about it. he is crazy fast, and i am sloooow long distance. when we run together, i get all up in my head about how slow he has to run to stay with me.
I keep almost all of my old running shoes – they have sentimental value! I’ve lost count over the years because my stupid heel-striking makes me go through them so quickly. I’ll have to do an inventory at some point 😉
It must be lovely to have someone else so close to you who shares your interests. I would worry about slowing down any potential partner, but that’s obviously not a problem for you!
When he is in his peak fitness he is a much faster runner than I ambit he doesn’t have the luxury of always being able to train Right now we are roughly the same long run pace but he is training lower mileage to break 17:00 again in the 5k.
My boyfriend and I are both runners too and our front door looks EXACTLY like that. ALL the shoes! And yes, all the running gifts for birthdays/holidays. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I wish i could get my sig other to run with me! I convinced him to do a 5k once, and then a sprint tri which he ended up hating… He enjoys lifting things up and putting them down (weights) and I just… don’t. Luckily, we have a love of beer and travel to share… and he puts up with sometimes coordinating that travel with running 🙂
Ha, at least he puts up with “reactions”!
I wish I had someone who loved to run, but I have the complete opposite. I have about 12 pair of running shoes, and of course need more, who doesn’t. I mentioned the other night a destination race-followed by “do you even know what that is?'” comment. have a great day and you two are freaking adorable
My husband and I both run, but generally not together. I like long distances, he likes shorter distances. We do occasionally go for a run together, but not often. I alternate between two pairs of shoes while I’m training but there is always a pile of in use or not in use running shoes in the closet! And the laundry…there is always a small mountain of that!
Adam actually got me into running and now I’m sure it’s one of those “careful what you wish for” things. He coaches cross country though and loves running just as much as I do, just more vicariously at this point!
I would LOVE to marry someone who runs/is active too. Do you run together often or is it hard to keep your pace similar to each other?
I have tried to get my husband into running. He did his first half marathon this past February, He did really well for himself and I was super proud of him. But that has kinda been the last time he has really ran.
I try to get rid of my running shoes, I usually just keep 2 at a time. Whenever I go buy new ones I bring some old pairs to turn in for donation purposes. When I was in High school I wanted to keep every pair so I had a closet full of shoes and filled 2 black trash bags with shoes and donated them at one point.
My explosion of running shoes is borderline obscene now–I can only imagine what it would be like living with another runner.
I wish Jon and I shared any of the same hobbies! He’s more of a watch football/golf/drink beer type of guy, and I’m more of an active/travel type person. We don’t even eat the same type of food (although, he will eat my dinners and we both love pork chops). Jon has had phases of loving to work out or loving to run, but they don’t last long. He’s definitely a man of phases… Drives me crazy. Haha. But I’m used to it. I do say that if I had to marry all over again, I’d find somebody who loved being active as much as I do. I have two pairs of shoes now- Merrell’s for the gym/running (I don’t really run anymore though) and New Balance Minimus (which I prefer over my Merrell’s) for hiking.
I absolutely LOVE this post! It just made me smile from ear to ear. My significant other and I do share a hobby together, also running. Although, I think it developed as a hobby together after we met. We started running more once our relationship formed.
I cracked up at your comment about vacation and finding a race… “I’ll do it if you do it!” has been said on several occasions in our house. I feel grateful that I am with someone where the peer pressure is doing something active. Also super grateful because “normal” people would just not understand why we eat certain foods, or wake up at 4am to knock out a long run before it gets hot.
I own probably 6 or so pairs of running shoes, however only have 3 pair that I rotate right now.
LOVE THIS POST!!
I currently own 6 pairs of running shoes. 2 Mizuno Hitogami, 2 Mizuno Wave Rider, 1 Zoot Solana, and 1 NB Fresh Foam Zante (by far my favorite). I gotta clean out the rotation…
I think it’s really sweet that you and Tim both run and sometimes run together. I’m glad my husband supports me, when he does, but he doesn’t really run anymore. He’s into MMA and CrossFit though. Still, you gotta love being an athletic family and occasionally attacking each other with the foam roller, having big containers of protein in the pantry, a big bucket of massage balls and recovery “tools” by the TV, stacks of shoes, etc!
I think it’s really cool that you guys met through running and that your first dates were runs! 🙂 Sometimes my husband and I go to the gym together, but mostly we like to watch movies together and the gym is our personal time.
my husband is an occasional runner. when he trained for his first (and only) marathon, we tried to do some runs together but it just didn’t work out well. while i love running with others, i didn’t enjoy having to plan everything about our runs. so running is mostly my thing and on limited occasions we’ll do it together. we’re more likely to race together than train together 🙂