Luciana Smith and her husband, Howard, are training for a marathon together – only not at the same time.
Because they have two young sons who can’t be left home alone, he says, “we take turns.” Besides, “she’s faster than I am, so trying to run together doesn’t work very well anyway.”
During the workweek, the mom and dad run on alternate mornings, mostly on rural roads around their home in Strasburg. On weekends each gets in a longer run while the other covers. Their goal is to compete in the Austin, Texas, Marathon in February.
Luciana, a former dental hygienist who works in a retail shop in Aurora, was the catalyst in this partnership. A recreational runner since grade school, she ran her first marathon to celebrate her 25th birthday in 2001. At the beginning of this year, she got to talking with Howard about doing another before her 30th – the Denver Marathon this fall.
Howard, 37, a members services supervisor for Kaiser-Permanente, had never been particularly active. “The most running I did was to the fridge,” he says. “But I thought, ‘I’m always talking about getting in shape,’ so I signed up for it the next day without even having started.”
It was hard at the beginning – “I couldn’t even run a full block without stopping,” he says – but gradually he built up his mileage. Within a few months, he had lost about 20 pounds and was fit enough to complete the Colfax Half-Marathon with his wife in May. Could he have done it without her support? “Probably not,” he says.
Luciana says having a partner has helped her, too. “It’s easy to sign up for a marathon, but much harder to train for,” she says. “Seeing him put in the miles each day has kept me on my toes, knowing that if he could do it, I could too.”
In addition, she says, “We’re being an example for each other. We’ve committed to a schedule, and we kind of have to hold each other accountable.”
Their plans to do the October marathon together fell through after Howard twisted his ankle on a training run in September, while they were in Las Vegas celebrating their seventh wedding anniversary. She was able to run it, however.
After taking a few weeks off and getting new shoes, Howard is now back on the road to his first attempt at the 26.2-mile distance. “I’ve always been a positive person,” he says of his outlook since taking up running. “I’m almost insufferably positive now.”
– Jack Cox
