The Marathon of Love

It has been a while since I have written a blog, but I promise the excuse is completely understandable.  We were in training for a marathon – only, it was a special marathon.  It was the marathon of planning a wedding.  It was a time when the finish line was always in sight, but we never knew how far it really was or how the day would turn out.  But, now, a week removed from our wedding day, I must say, it turned out spectacular.

(You can watch a video of our wedding by clicking here)

We planned our wedding in less than two months.  We somehow found time to continue to train and run our first full marathon in the first month.  I think what kept us going was our love for each other.  It was the ability to trust one another completely, and not be afraid to be vulnerable.  Training for that first full marathon while planning a wedding really helped us realize that it was important to work together and that as long as we had each other we could do anything.

The night before the wedding felt like the night before any race.  It was impossible to sleep from pure excitement and expectation.  I tossed, I turned, I smiled thinking about the fact that I was about to marry my soul mate and I wanted it to be perfect.  It’s impossible to feel at ease when you have planned a wedding in two months.  Training for the marathon took at least 5 months and we didn’t have to worry about anyone except ourselves.  Wedding planning was a whole different monster altogether, but Rachel always remained calm.  I waited for her Bridezilla moments; yet, she always wore a smile and, just as in running, ran beside me letting me know everything was going to be alright.

As the wedding night grew closer it became obvious that training for a full marathon was much more grueling than planning a wedding.  I think both of us waited for the planning to become overwhelming.  I think we expected it to encompass our lives, but it never did.  I suppose it was our venue (Ashton Gardens) that took such good care of us and always put our minds at ease, or maybe it was that fact that we knew no matter how the day turned out that we loved each other.

Running has become such a big part of our lives and it has definitely allowed us to grow closer as best friends and now husband and wife.  I honestly think that running played a big part of making our planning stress-free.  It allowed us to spend a lot of time together talking about the day and connecting at a higher level.

Our wedding was beautiful and surpassed our expectations.  I recommend planning a wedding in two months simply because it cut down on the amount of stress that we would have likely felt over a longer period of time.  We really did spend a lot of time training for our first full marathon and less time planning a wedding, but both had wonderful results.  I got to run a full marathon with my best friend.  I got to plan a wedding with my fiancée and, I got to marry my beautiful wife.