Still learning about each other

Today my husband and I had one of our rare runs together. We opted to run while the boys were at basketball practice. We ran the first 5.5 together and then he continued on for another 5 miles, meeting us at home. On this run I found that after 11 years, I still continue to learn new things about him.

Obviously it was Valentine's weekend since he ran without his ear buds. Normally he doesn't understand why I think listening to an iPod while running with someone defeats the whole reason to run with someone. He says he can still hear me. This is kinda true since he does tend to hear me when I am repeating what I just said in addition to giving a dirty look. However, I don't think this counts, but he apparently does. I should take what I can get since the day before I had to inform him that Valentine's Day was on February 14th, not the 12th. This honestly surprised him. To be fair to him (and because he will quickly point this out to anyone who mentions this blog posting to him) I should admit that two nights before I turned to him and said "Just so you know, I am not getting you a Valentine's Day card". He believes this means that it should be no surprise that he does not know what date V-day actually occurs on. Hmmmmm.... again... we have different levels of expectations.

Anyway.. got a little off track here. So, on this run with my dear, dear, husband I learned that he is a SIDEWALK runner and I am a ROAD runner. Now, in the summer this would not bother me too much, but in the winter when running on sidewalks means leaping over rock hard snowplow mounds at intersections; tip toeing over ice spots from snow that melted then sheeted over the sidewalk and then froze; and praying that my ankle doesn't twist as I run over sidewalks that had not been shoveled (GRRRR) I find this practice somewhat ludicrous. Especially when the road is nice and clear. So, there were many times during our 5 miles when I was running on one side of the road (against traffic) and he was running on the sidewalk on the OTHER side of the road. Makes for great conversation. This should not have surprised me since he tends to be a pretty law abiding person when it comes to pedestrian type activities. He leaves it to me to be the family law breaker when it comes to crossing the street before the street light flashes the white (you are allowed to) walk person (all the while shaking his head or giving the "I am NOT with her" look). Also, on previous joint runs he often urged me to get into a single file formation even though the car he believed was 'upon us' was in actuality just a 'glint of sun off the roof in the far distance' to me. I wouldn't be surprised if the next time we run together he brings a long a rope with two loops to hang on to, just like you see pre-schoolers using on field trips.

But I must say, despite all this silliness, I do love running with him and am thankful we have something we can do together, even if he is wearing his ear buds. It wouldn't be any fun if I couldn't rib him about something!