WSJ.com Article on People Running So Much They're Ruining Their Marriages

Its too bad all these people are letting marriage get in the way of their running.

I couldn't finish the article after the line, "A lot of wives in my position would have left." What is wrong with these people. Way to make yourself out to be some type of martyr just cause your husband has a hobby.

Wrong . Running more than 30 minutes a day or 3 miles a day , whichever is quicker, 5 x times a week is narcissitic and indulgent. Do it when not married and with children.

And, dont' bullshit me that ,' I only run an hour a day and squeeze in just under 70 miles per week.'

We all know that , that hour a day encompasses more time with fastidious stretching, anal diet, sneak in some strength training, cross training, and can't ignore "core" because ,it is a word everyone loves to use .

Finish all of that ,and read and post on LR for six hours.

There's a thin line between "hobby" and "mental illness".

more and more running couples are getting married, it is probably too early to tell how it affects the marriage, but how are adam and kara goucher handling it. i read in a wall street journal article worknesh kidane and gebre gebremariam actually encourage each other with their running hobby. isnt paula radcliffe married to a retired 3:34 for 1500 runner? did radcliffe put pressure on him to retire, now that they have 2 kids will gary lough (radcliffes husband) try to get her to stop running so much? tirunesh dibaba and sileshi sihine have not raced as much since getting married, is that a coincidence? or are they just realizing their relationship is more important than running.

i guess it is up to each couple to decide, but it would be interesting to see how these relationships between runners turn out.

mary decker- slaney used to seemingly date and/or marry runners only, quax, tabb, etc. and those relationships were all short term, then she married a non runner, who was a weight thrower and they have been happily married for over 25 years.

so again it depends on the couple.

I will fully admit that my running has had a negative effect on my social life, marriage prospects, enjoyment of sex, employment status, relationships with friends and family, and my financial net worth. I would not trade my running for ANYTHING or ANYONE.

The wife and I met and fell in love running and training "together" over the years doing XC and track in college. We went through the miles of trials and trial by miles together over the hot summers and cold winter mornings when we were the outliers of our teams w/ respect to milage. We got engaged running up a mountain after college and while niether of us are "training" anymore, running together after work while pushing the baby stroller is one of our favorite family activities. I am a lucky guy! The family runs give us time to talk, engage our two year old and get him outside, and a 30-45 minute run after work leaves everyone much happier afterwards. (she does dissaprove of letsrun.com and wouldn't know alan webb from haile g.)

I've been married 20 years and we have 2 kids - if you don't conceal your habit to some degree, people think you have a problem.

I run 70 mpw with core and lifting 3 x per week. 90% of my fix is accomplished before those killjoys are out of bed.

Seriously though, between running, lifting, some stretching, I might average 80 minutes per day - everybody should be getting 60 minutes a day of exercise/play, so what the f***?

^this.

I honestly dont see the problem spending 1-2 hrs a day exercising. As apposed to the milliins that spend time watching hours of tv, husbands that work till late hours of the day and men that cheat on their wives. Like these women dont spend hours watching their tv?

That one guy in the article said that he wanted to swim to English Channel to "inspire his family" has it completely wrong. Spend time with your kids and take them to the park, that will inspire your family to be good parents someday.

I met my wife, she was a runner, I was a soccer player, I started running and we both got better and better (14.35 to her 18.00 at 5000m). We got hitched and keep progressing.

We have other interests but running 10+ hours per week and racing every 2-3 weeks means everything else gets put to the back.

My view is that anyone who meets a runner shouldn't then change them regardless of babies and all that crap.

Im sure the 1-2 hours we may be working out a day is spent by many Americans watching Teen Mom or American Idol but for some reason an unhealthy TV habit is more accepted.

Is it really hard to fit in say 1.5 hours (which should be between 12-13 miles a day, maybe down closer to 10 for the older ones on here), by running in the morning and at lunch at work? You don't really miss family time then...

The way I see it, it really is all about time management, something a lot of people lack. There are 24 hours in a day. Say you work 8 hours, run 2 hours, sleep 8... you still have 6 hours a day to make family time happen. Even if you take another 2 to just do whatever, you still have 4, which seems a lot more than most people.

I have been running/coaching running for over 20 years. When I first met my wife I was running regularly over 90 miles a week. As I have aged (slowed down)and we had kids my running has decreased. Not because of my wife, because of me.

My wife and I both agree that being fit is important. He makes us happier when we are healthier. We make time for both to work out. I am lucky that my job ends early in the day, and I can workout before our kids get home. My wife spends about an hour every day after work at the gym.

My wife says that everyone has some kind of addiction or habit, and she's grateful that mine is something as harmless (even beneficial) as running. Too many other people turn to eating, drinking, cheating, TV-watching, or worse, obsessing over sports such as football.

A good friend of my wife is now dating this guy who cannot go 2 seconds without turning on the television to check on "the game". I barely knew the guy when he first visited, and he insisted on commandeering our television for over 2 hours. He does this pretty much every time the couple visits.

203 wrote:

Im sure the 1-2 hours we may be working out a day is spent by many Americans watching Teen Mom or American Idol but for some reason an unhealthy TV habit is more accepted.

That is most likely because more people do it and, it helps the economy more by providing an audience for all the commercials for things that will improve your lifestyle (ED drugs/Osteo-flex/depends, et.al.) The next thing you know, bottles of calcium supplements and glucosamine/chrondotin (sp?) are appearing in your cupboards (not that anyone takes them after purchase). Or is my experience unique?

My ex-wife hated my running. Of course by the time I really started training the marriage was in the crapper anyway. I'm pretty sure she would have hated anything that I did at that point. It was a symptom, not a cause.

I'm a hobby-jogger married to a non-runner. When she was pregnant with child #1, we discussed how many races / how much running was reasonable given our upcoming life upheavals. I ended up halving my races and trying best to minimize "exercise-associated time not actually exercising:" driving to running spots, being in a running club, leisure post-race hanging-out, etc.

Also doing what others have said-- running early, doing my share or more of parenting and chores, and learning how to work out and recover to avoid being a log and having more self-time.

It's about awareness, discussion, and compromise. C'mon, fellow Boomers, it's not that difficult.

"A lot of wives in my position would have left," Mrs. Waxman says

In other words, "Because he is a private banking executive at Merrill Lynch, he makes bank and I am financially set with him around. I have free reign on spending and he lavishes me with expensive gifts, so I can put up with this bs. Oh yeah, we sleep in seperate bedrooms and haven't made love in 3 years, but I am still with him!"