Marathons and Marriage

I read somewhere recently that the incidence of divorce amongst dedicated marathon runners was higher than in the general population at large. To some degree I can understand that, especially if the marathon runner in question does not share his/her passion with his/her partner. Anyone who runs a marathon knows the intense training that needs to be undergone and in the long run phase you can often right-off a whole weekend to run and recover from your run.

However, the theory goes that people who enjoy training for marathons are secretly trying to escape from the home for long lengths of time to escape 'the other half'. I really don't know whether or not this is true and in my own case I am not aware of ever having used marathon training as an excuse to escape intimacy.

What do you think? Have any of you reading this ever experienced your marathon hobby coming between you and your partner?

If you are struggling in your marriage to any degree then go to http://www.themarriagesite.com where you can get some helpful information and, if you want to, you can download my ebook, 'Building a Marathon Marriage'.

All the best with your marathons and your marriages.

Since Luton Marathon

Having injured myself quite badly, as it turns out, at Luton, I didn't run at all until just after Christmas when I went for a 7k run with my friend Sunnil. It went well although we both ran well within ourselves. I did another couple of short runs between Christmas and New Year with no reaction at all but on the 5th of January I went for a proposed 10k run with Andrew and Sunnil but within 2 miles my lower hamstring twaeked badly and brought me to an immediate halt. I limped slowly home, extremely dissapointed that another muscle had gone. A different one from before.

I booked an appointment with the physio and she gave me a thorough muscle examination. Her verdict was that I have been getting back to running too quickly each time and so the muscle that is currently damaged is drawing on other muscle groups for support and thus weakening them and so they in turn pop. She gave me a really good deep muscle massage but insisted that I do not run at all for the next 6 weeks. Ouch!

I will of course do as she says and if I need to exercise I'll need to swim or cycle.

I have no marathons planned in the near future so I'll just need to ease my way back to fitness after I get back to training. I'm thinking of running the Glasgow (my home city) half in August and maybe a full marathon in September somewhere. Any suggestions?