What My Supportive Hubby Went Through for 7 Years of my racing

It finally hit home yesterday what my dear, dear non-racing hubby went through for the past 7 years while I raced. He's always been by my side for all but about 3-4 races and I always considered myself one of the luckiest girls alive to have such a supportive hubby who never had an interest in racing himself. He lived my racing life for 7 years -- training, planning and packing for races, sharing the excitement of traveling to races, nervousness at the start, and then the part I never experienced until yesterday-- the waiting for me to finish. I had NO idea what he went through! We watched the Xterra at Rocky Gap and it was when the slower racers came through that Rick said "Jill, that was you when you raced." So we were joking about Jill racing while we watched Christina and Sheena plow through the course (more on them later - they weren't pokey like me!). First, the start -- the swim. Its fun watching the fast swimmers -- but then there's the slackers -- me! Now which one is Jill...this might be her - oops, its not. She must be that slower one breast stroking. Is that her? Yes! Finally she's done the swim. Off to the bike we go -- no biggy on the bike. Jill can hold her own and usually passes bunches of girls. But the bike is usually the longest part - the part he stands around the most for. The run -- Jill drags arse on the run. By this time in the race he's been standing or sitting around for over 2 hours and he's beginning to get antsy. Every girl that comes over the horizon he's hoping its me so we can get going. Is that Jill? Darn, no. There she is -- wrong again. Ho hum... she'll soon come poking up over the hill. There she is -- finally. She looks tired - she's barely moving. Little did I realize I was THAT slow! And it was the same for bike races and adventure races and I wonder now what he did while I raced two 12 hour adventure races? Poor thing. And little did I realize that THAT was what I put my hubby through all these years. I can't thank him enough -- oh, that's right, I already am - I'm not racing anymore. We left Rocky Gap knowing that that will likely be the last race we'll ever be at -- the last time he'll have to wait around for me to finish. I cried when we got there and kinda cried when we left. I came home and gathered together my 6 years of training logs, training plans, heart rate monitors, notes, trophies/medals, memorabilia from varied races and put them in a big box labeled "Jill's Racing Years." Racing and training is truly history -- sort of a passing of the torch to others. Good luck to all of you that are inflicted with this addiction -- but BE SAFE! And even more luck goes out to all the supportive spouses who aren't racers - you guys are troopers.