Marathons, Diabetes, and Big Changes

Now and then, I mention my husband Robbie around these parts.  I'll briefly mention his job, I talked about our wedding back in 2011, and sometimes I'll share something cool (or not-so-cool) that we did together.  He's not one to have his picture all over the blog, he's definitely not obsessed with social media (like his wife may or may not be), and he makes fun of me for documenting things like what we ate for dinner on Instagram. So I don't gush about him here - although I easily could, because he's a pretty wonderful person. 

Well today, I'm going to break the silence.  I'm going to gush.  Because I'm proud of this dude. Not because he's been amazing during my pregnancy (he has), or because he's going to be a really rad dad (he will), or because he's just an all-around fun, bad ass person (he is).  I'm proud of him because on October 13th, he's going to run the Chicago Marathon.

Let me tell you why this is so incredible to me.  First of all, Robbie has made some big changes to get to this point.  You see, he and I used to be 'ragers.' When we met, and for the first few years of our relationship, we liked to party.  As much as possible.  We liked to be constantly social, we liked to drink vast amounts of beer and tequila and dance until the sun rose (every weekend, and often on weekdays too), and we liked to chain smoke cigarettes.  We didn't want to miss anything, and despite the fact that we always ate somewhat healthy, we didn't treat our bodies very well.  It was fun, and I don't regret any of it.  But we grew out of that period of our lives. And although it all seems like such a long time ago now, there was one vice that continued to rear its ugly head in the aftermath: nicotine.  I was never a heavy smoker and really only smoked socially, so it was much easier for me to stop.  For Robbie, it wasn't so easy.  He'd been smoking for a long time, and smoking a lot, and a job in the music industry on the road didn't exactly provide the best environment for giving it up.  But six months ago, he did.  And he declared that in celebration of this achievement, he was going to fulfill a life-long goal - he was going to run a marathon.  He's been training ever since.

The second reason for the awesomeness of this is that Robbie decided that instead of just running for himself, he wanted to run for a cause.  He looked at several different charities, but one stood out to him - the Chicago Diabetes Project.  He has watched my dad deal with Diabetes and its complications on a daily basis for years.  His old roommate and several of our friends struggle with this disease as well.  So he made the decision last week to run for them.  (The CDP team is called 'Cellmates on the Run.'  How clever is that?!) He signed the contract and the deal was done. I am so proud of him.  And my dad got all sorts of choked up when we told him that Robbie would be running in his honor.

So there you have it.  Those are the reasons why this is especially amazing to me.  I also wanted to share Robbie's fundraising page with you guys.  I'd love for you to check it out, and if any of you feel inclined to make a small donation, it would be more appreciated than I can put into words.  Truly.  This is such a wonderful cause and I'm so excited for Robbie to be affiliated with it for his very first marathon!  To donate, just click 'Sponsor Me' and enter any amount (even $1 is fantastic!).  Or if you'd rather not donate and just want to read more about Robbie's motivation behind this or about the organization, that is appreciated too.  Just click here.  

Thanks for letting me brag about my dude for a minute.  It's about time I paid him some tribute on the blog.  I really am so, so proud of him.  He's going to have one seriously obnoxious cheerleader screaming from the sidelines on marathon day.

Top photo by Chad Smith