Running with Soy Sauce

As I mentioned last post, The New DeLews are eagerly trying out our new persona- the Sportsy Couple. So let's talk about our history with sportsy-ness.

For the past year I have spent most of my lunch breaks on the treadmill at my work's gym. It's been cool, I've watched a lot of the news, particularly 'Russia Today'- which has given me a superficial view of how Russian media views the U.S.... sometimes depressing, but mostly entertaining. Anyway, I've become pretty comfortable with my inside-running routine.

Now even though I can easily run 3 miles inside, take me outside and suddenly I'm all wheezy and heaving, and I usually end up all angry the whole time. So if Mark ever suggests that we go for a run together, I have 3 criterion that Mark must promise to follow:

1. Mark must talk the whole time
2. I must set the pace
3. I can decide at any moment that the run is over, and Mark can't judge me

Pretty reasonable rules, yeah? Well my dear husband knows how to humor me, so he appeases me in this one area.

One day last Fall Mark and I decided to take a run outside. And of course, I reiterated the rules, Mark agreed, and then we agreed on one more rule- we need to run with a purpose! Now this purpose (for some people) might be to get healthy, to build endurance, or whatever. Our purpose for running that morning- to end our run at the sweet diner that we've always wanted to check out. And it was fun! I mean, sitting in the diner all sweaty and wheezing wasn't necessarily awesome, but we had a good time 'running with purpose'!

Now that I am training to run a 10 mile race at the end of May, I am pleased to say that I've gotten over my running-outside phobia. The 3 rules don't really apply anymore, meaning that I can be a civil human being when my husband graciously runs with me. But we still like to 'run with purpose'.

In fact, last week Mark and I were planning on taking a 3 mile run, when we realized that we were intensely craving homemade pad thai, and that we needed some bean sprouts from the local Korean grocery store. So we figured out a route that would conveniently place us at Jung Boo at the 2.2 mile mark. In we went, picked up the 50 cents worth of bean sprouts and pranced to the cash register. Until we found out that they had a $5 minimum for credit card transactions. (who carries cash anymore?). We picked up the largest bottle of soy sauce ever (it was a great deal, so we had to get the big bottle of course), and cashed out of Jung Boo. Mark graciously carried the huge-*** bottle of soy sauce for the remainder of our run.

We looked like total running rookies with our soy sauce and bean sprouts, but ya know, we had a great time! I'm realizing that our desire to be that 'Sportsy Couple' doesn't necessarily mean that we'll look super sportsy. But we're learning how to interact with each other in sporty-ish ways. So bring on the running outside with purpose- we may not look pretty doing it, but we'll have fun- even with soy sauce in hand.