Every mile a memory

This year, Erica and Preston Neel won’t be celebrating Valentine’s Day with chocolate and champagne. 

Instead, the Mountain Brook couple will likely start their day with a slice of bread topped with peanut butter and a waffle with scrambled eggs. This Valentine’s Day, the couple will be running the Mercedes Half-Marathon together.

Erica, a local business owner, has run the half-marathon before, and the couple ran the Magic City Half Marathon together in November.

“We’re doing as many runs as we can,” Erica said.

For the Neels, preparation for the Mercedes Half has been a little more intense than other runners may have experienced.

The couple ran the full Miami Marathon on Jan. 24, and the Mercedes Half will be one of the first long runs the couple does after recovering.

“This is the first time we’ve really kind of done it together, so that’s been kind of fun. It’s definitely a topic of conversation — we talk about it all the time,” Preston said.

While the couple has been running together sporadically over the last six years, including when they helped each other train five years ago for a Mercedes Half that only Erica eventually ran, they first began officially training together in September to get ready for the Magic City.

“I got started a little too quick,” Preston, who is an attorney for Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, said. Running 18 miles in three days was rough on his knees.

However, Preston said by the time the race arrived, he and Erica were prepared enough to beat their personal goals. 

As their training progressed, the couple eventually worked up to doing half-marathon distances nearly every weekend, moving to longer and longer runs as the Miami race approached.

Preston said while they tried to do individual running and interval training throughout the week, most of their long runs take place on the weekend when Erica’s mother could watch their two children. 

It’s during this time that the couple would run together — encouraging one another and talking through the miles.

“There’s no way I could do it if I didn’t have someone with me,” Erica said. She added there were times when, without the other, dehydration or mental fatigue would have put an end to a long run.

Other than the time of day, most runs look the same: They wear the same gear, drink the same amount of coffee and water and run pretty much the same routes.  The couple said they usually place drinking water along their routes through Mountain Brook and Homewood and try to eat energy gel every hour.

Routes averaged 13, 15 and 18 miles throughout the fall and early winter, and the couple added longer, 21-mile runs to prepare for the full marathon. 

Most weekends, however, runs would be around three hours in length.

“It’s been a good calming exercise,” Preston said. “With kids and work you get busy, and the exercise has certainly helped with just adding balance.”

Erica added that the long runs on the weekend allow the couple to plan and schedule the week ahead.

“It’s been beneficial for everybody involved,” she said.

Everybody — including the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, who Erica said often begs to go running.

“It would be a dream come true if in high school she went running with me in the mornings,” she said.

More than encouraging the family to exercise, Preston said he thinks training for the races has improved his and the family’s health as a whole.

“Doing the long runs has forced me to drink more water during the day, be cognizant of what I eat,” he said. “It’s not just ‘get off the couch and go run a marathon.’”

For other couples thinking about running a half-

marathon or other major race together, the Neels have a few suggestions.

“I would definitely do a lot of during-the-week runs and not just run on the weekend,” Erica said.

Preston added that the biggest challenge is time management and scheduling, especially if a couple has children.

“A lot of couples, the wife runs or the husband runs, but both don’t get a chance — especially if they’re working spouses,” he said.

Despite the challenges, such as trying to schedule runs around the holidays and finding child care, the Neels plan to continue running together.

“I think we both love running, so I think we’ll continue to run,” Erica said. “We’ll definitely do halves.”