Macau Half Marathon

On the 4th December 2011 I ran my very first half marathon. I would never in my life have considered myself a "runner" but after Derrald ran his first marathon last March he has been slowly convincing me that you don't have to be a "runner" to "run" a half marathon. He set the challenge for both of us - a half marathon in Macau at the beginning of December and we had 10 weeks to train.

What I want to talk about in this post is how important it is to have a team mate. A supporter. A friend. The road to health is not always an easy one but surrounding yourself with people who are just as interested as you are makes things a lot easier. Derrald and I are our own best and worst support team. We both love to get healthy and we both love to be devilishly unhealthy. This often takes us to the extremes on both ends of the scale.

Right now we are back in health mode. In fact, Derrald is joining me on the Take Shape for Life plan and we are treating the next two weeks as a kind of "detox" in preparation for the Christmas season and to help "lighten our loads" for the new year. It is SO much fun being able to do something like this together. Just like the half marathon training, it puts you both on the same page and helps create a bond between you. It gives us something to talk about everyday, we get to check in with each other and help each other.

One of my favorite patterns that we started this year was our commitment to running together every week. We started back in January when we still lived in North Carolina. We were very fortunate to have such easy access to the trails in NC. They are beautiful and the weather is often perfect for being outside.

We continued our pattern even while on our cruise in April:

And after moving to Hong Kong, when we decided to run the Macau Half Marathon, our dedication increased... we even got up before the crack of dawn one day to make sure we could get our run in.

in the a.m.

And like rebel teenagers we scaled the fence...

We didn't begin running with any particular goal in mind. It was just a fun way for us to workout together. I was concerned that it wouldn't work out because we run at such different paces. I think to make this work both partners need to be reasonable. I always told Derrald he could run ahead and we'd meet at the end and he always made an effort to run slower for a few miles so we could chat and run together. Best of both worlds.

Now we have medals. I love our medals because they signify our dedication. A challenge accepted and overcome. I would be so excited and proud of myself had I run the race alone. My achievements are my own, but to have a friend there, hollering my name at the end of the race as I entered the stadium only 8 minutes behind him,  wondering what obstacles he had to overcome and looking forward to sharing our race stories, that sweet readers is awesome.

For the full story and more photos of our half marathon, click here. 

With a new year approaching I invite you to find your own "race"and to challenge your partner. Whether that means challenging them to support you in your own race or challenging them to accept a race you can support them in.