I have to say that I am a really lucky gal. I’m one of those annoying people who raves about her husband non-stop and absolutely loves being married. My husband is simply a great guy.

One of the many things I love about him is that he is constantly challenging me. I was heading out for my gym time a couple of nights ago planning on running 5 miles. Like he always does, he wished me luck but then, somewhat as an afterthought, he added, “You should run 7.”

I looked at him incredulously. “I haven’t run 7 since I gave birth to our son and even months before that.”

“So?”

That was all the motivation I needed.

I did my usually stretches before hopping on the treadmill and got going. I was at mile 4 and feeling pretty good. Mile 5 came and went and I was proud at having at least met my first goal. But no way was I stopping there. I was approaching mile 7 and starting to feel the effects of having run for over an hour. I planned on stopping and going home to show him I had run his 7 miles but then a thought came to me. Why not take his 7 and raise him 1 more? So there I was, a little over 2 months after giving birth to my second child, running 8 miles at a 9:30 pace.

When I was done, the runner’s high was seeping through me. My blood was racing and my body felt that it was still going even though it had been minutes since I’d stopped. I couldn’t believe that I had done it. I knew that eventually I’d run 8 miles in the course of my training, but because I’m a pretty conservative trainer (sometimes too conservative), I hadn’t planned on it happening so soon. I knew it was my husband’s push that had done it for me.

Plus, I can never resist a challenge : )