Baby's First 5K

My preggo 5K occurred on Saturday. It was a great experience, but the 12 hours previous had me nervous. Friday night I hung out at home and crafted while my husband went over to a friend's house for video gaming. It was storming something fierce and I was thinking, "Oh great. I don't really want to run in the rain tomorrow." I went to bed hoping it would clear by morning.

3:30 AM arrives and I get up to go to the bathroom. And toss. And turn. Sigh. I'm starving. I go eat a piece of string cheese (my go-to midnight snack). It does nothing to curb my hunger. So I get up and go make this breakfast quinoa recipe I read about in Martha Stewart. In my underwear. At some point in the tossing and turning I realized I was really hot so I took off my pants. Thus, I was in my kitchen at 4:30 in the morning, in an ill-fitting t-shirt and underwear making quinoa. Never one to focus on a single task, I read my book while it cooked. EXPLODE. Quinoa and milk all over the stove. The quinoa finally got done and I WOLFED it down. It was divine. At about 5:30 I went back to bed and probably fell asleep around 6.

At 8:15 my alarm went off. UGH. I was exhausted and my head hurt. "I don't want to run" I told my husband. He asked me what I was doing early this morning that was causing some banging. "Oh, cooking quinoa", I replied nonchalantly. He just shook his head. I guess he is getting used to my early morning escapades! He confessed that he thought it was a dumb idea, me running this 5K. "WHAT?!", I exclaimed. He said that he knew how competitive I get and that he was worried that I would be in a bad mood all day because my time would suck. I told him that this was a very valid concern, and I was really trying to make it fun and I was going to try very hard to not let my time bother me. Of course, I had to have a goal. Given that the majority of my runs are around 30 minutes long, I told him that my goal was to finish in under 30 minutes.

We headed off to the run, with the new camera. My husband was going to try to capture some action shots. We got to the race, got my packet and I had to pee. Ten minutes later, I had to pee again. The 5K was a great 5K to pick for my preggo run - it was very relaxed and on the smaller side. We lined up and I had to pee. CRAP! I thought it was nerves and that it would go away when the gun went off. The race started at 9:30. It was a beautiful sunny day and I just started plugging along. I felt really really really good...well besides the fact that I had to pee the ENTIRE TIME. Probably the best I have felt while running this whole pregnancy. There were no mile markers along the course, no clocks, just me and my watch. (Which of course I was glancing at, trying to estimate how much of the course we had completed and when I could get to a bathroom). I knew we were making a huge circle and when we were coming up on the finish, I saw the clock working it's way towards 24 minutes. That is when the competitive juices kicked in (pun intended) and I desperately wanted to finish under 24 minutes. I crossed the finish in 23:52. And i felt great. I ran straight from the finish to the bathroom. That's a pregnant runner for you!

WTF. 4 full months of major suckage running all made up for in one 5K. I celebrated by eating one of the hot dogs at the finish. (Yes, I ate a hot dog. I was not about to care about the pregnancy rules.)

Sure it's not a PR and if I got that time non-pregnant, I wouldn't be happy. But I was actually pretty proud of myself on Saturday and was in a great mood for the rest of the weekend, much to my husband's delight. Now...do I do another one?!? :)