Tina and Steve Goodwin will run The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race together on Wednesday ... sort of.
While Tina will be running through the streets of Atlanta, Steve, a master sergeant in the U.S. Army, will be resting after running in one of the Peachtree's satellite races at a base in Kabul, Afghanistan. Though they have never run in such parallel events before, they thought it would be a way to strengthen their marriage, even though they will be separated by more than 7,500 miles.
"It's a way to stay connected," Tina said. "That's what's key for us and makes it [marriage] successful. You see so many married couples that struggle with this. We don't let the distance become a wedge in our family."
There will also be satellite races for U.S. military personnel in Egypt and Kuwait. Steve's race will begin at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday here, which is 6 a.m. Wednesday in Afghanistan.
Before Steve was deployed in May — he is based at Fort Hood in Texas — he and Tina began talking about fitness and tried to come up with something they could do separately but share until they see each other when he goes on leave in December.
With family in the Atlanta area — Tina's sister, Kim Beacham, lives in Dunwoody and Steve's uncle, Pete Wilson, lives in Alpharetta — Tina realized she and her two daughters, 10-year-old Emily and Carey, would be in Atlanta this week celebrating Carey's 5th birthday on Monday. That inspired her to register for the Peachtree.
The race also rang a bell with Steve, who realized that there would be a Peachtree satellite race at his forward operating base. Tina won the lottery and Steve entered.
"It's great to be doing something my wife is doing," he said.
They are taking the races seriously. Though Steve has always been a runner, Tina didn't start running until she met Steve at a New Year's Eve party in Austin, Texas, in 1995. They began dating and were married in 1998.
"I started to seek out [races] because he liked to do it," she said. They've run together in the Army Ten-Miler in Washington, D.C.
Tina has been cross-training for the Peachtree by running short distances up to five miles. Steve, a member of a drive team, trains every day. He either runs on a treadmill or around the base.
The route and the conditions will be much different for Tina and Steve. While Tina will likely be dealing with 90-degree temperatures at a modest 1,000 feet above sea level, Steve will be competing in a runner's nightmare. The altitude is Kabul a lung-constricting 6,000 feet and Goodwin matter-of-factly said the air pollution is six times worse than Atlanta's.
"It'll be a feat getting through it," he said.
Tina said she doubts she will get to talk to Steve between the end of his race and the beginning of her's because of the time difference and his work schedule.
She has no doubt he will be thinking of her. She describes him as a true patriarch of the family, helping her and his daughters with everything from plumbing problems to school projects as often as he can through Skype.
"We have a really good relationship," she said. "It's amazing how we keep that going for our children's sake, though the distance is there."
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