Last night, Boyfriend screwed up. Not a big thing like last week, but he still kept me waiting for him and feeling neglected 🙁 To make up for it, we determined that tonight would be date night. I assured him that it didn’t need to be a big deal – something casual or simple was fine – but I eagerly anticipated what lay ahead.
I tried to get out of work early, wanting to get in a workout before date night. Marathoning aside, I have been so lax lately about working out, and while I’m thrilled to amazingly still be losing weight, I recognize that not exercising is not good. Boyfriend and I had a very tentative time of 7 PM set (subject to change if he needed to stay longer at work, which is always a good chance when we’re aiming for 7 PM and not midnight), so I called him when I left work around 5:30.
Unfortunately, due to various work commitments, I couldn’t reach him until about 7:30 PM. This meant that I hadn’t gotten my gym time in, because I had been waiting around to hear from him before leaving my phone and hitting up the gym. Annoyed when he finally got back to me, I dramatically informed him that because he had kept me sitting around instead of working out, I was now not ready for date night. In fact, I told him, because I wanted to go to the gym and he had kept me waiting instead of being able to go, date night was off. Canceled. Done.
This is where Boyfriend showed his true colors. Instead of calling me out on being the spoiled brat that I was being, he made the best date night suggestion he could have made.
“I have my workout clothes here. Why don’t you put on your running clothes, run down the West Side Highway while I run up from my office, and we’ll meet in the middle?”
Only someone who really knows me would suggest a date like that. Running? Sweating? Huffing and puffing? You know I loved it! So that’s exactly what we did: I ran the first 2 miles at an 8 minute pace (not bad considering my legs were still sore from Vermont), met him around 34th Street, and we slowed to a nice peaceful walk along the river to get home. Once to my place, he patiently waited for me (change is in the air!) while I got my stuff together, and then we continued date night with drinks and Mexican food at Cafe Frida, this great little place on the Upper West Side with fabulous guacamole and even more fabulous cocktails. I happily munched away on my appetizer-sized portion of shrimp quesadillas, and was able to end the night not feeling guilty at all about what I had eaten. We went running! Calories negated, obvi 🙂
Next quest: turning Boyfriend-who-sometimes-runs-a-few-miles-here-and-there-maybe-sometimes-not-often-and-usually-gets-injured-and-sore-and-complains-if-and-when-it-actually-does-happen into Boyfriend-26.2. Advice welcome 🙂
Actually, believe it or not, I don’t think you need to do ANYTHING on that front–I have a feeling that eventually, it will just happen.
My boyfriend was just an occasional runner who insisted he had no interest in ever running a marathon . . . but then after watching me do it, I think he felt like he HAD to do it to prove that he was a man or something (okay, fine–maybe he just wanted to support something that I was really into by trying it out himself-blah, blah, blah). All I know is one day he was insisting he never wanted to run one, and the next, he was signed up to run the Austin Marathon!
I think the boys can’t help but be inspired by us–and eventually, Boyfriend will take the plunge 😉
Very cute date :).
I agree with Irish. I think it may just be contageous after a while – especially given the chance to see you successfully race them so often. He’ll want in in that at some point.
It also could hurt to ‘just happen to have found’ a race that features something he’d really like – like finishing in a sports stadium, or a big beer garden, or Pike’s Peak (although that’d be a tough first marathon for sure). My fiancé decided all on his own that he wanted to do Marine Corps, because of the marine connection.
Sounds like an awesome date!!!
ps: it’s weird, just today my blogroll showed that you had a new post…when you’ve actually had a lot since the last ones! I don’t know why it’s not updating…
that is really sweet of him!! Such a great guy!!
At first I thought this post started “last night Boyfriend screwed me” – I thought sweet this one is going to be interesting! But no.
Ha, wow. I’ll tell you how to turn your BF into a marathon guy if you tell me how to convince my wife that ‘date night’ means running and Mexican!
Were it me, I’d suggest to BF that he train for a half (and then run it with him). He’ll probably be a lot happier with the results (and more likely to stick with running) if he works his way up to a full.
But, if he’s a typical guy, I’m sure that wouldn’t fly…