Week 7: Running a 10K

Sometime in February, I started talking with a friend and former running partner of mine about running a 10K race in the middle of March.  It was a pretty low profile event, really near my house on a trail I used to run with this same running partner, and it's always fun to do races on your home turf.  If that wasn't good enough, it was only a $10 entry fee, which can't be beat, and there was no early registration.  (So, considering it was in mid-March, if we woke up that morning and it happened to be snowing and we decided not to run, we wouldn't be out any money.)  Perfect; I was definitely looking forward to it.  I had run some last summer, but since I was still nursing Sweetest P, I laid pretty low as running too much always affects the ever precious supply.  I was more than ready to get back in the game.

When we started talking about it, I knew there was a possibility that I could be pregnant by race day, but I figured it would be early enough that I could still manage the race.  What I didn't anticipate was that not only would I be pregnant at that time, but that between Tim's schedule and my schedule, my opportunities to get out and stretch my legs seemed to be all too few and far between.  (One of the hardest adjustments to having 3 small people in the house is that they no longer all fit in the stroller to go on runs with me.)  So let's just say I was more than a little unprepared for this race.  And by the way, I should probably just call it a run, because let's be real; I wasn't really "racing" anyone.

Anyway, I felt like I had committed to my friend, and I didn't want to bail out on a commitment, so I showed up for the race.  But I knew I had no choice but to be forthright.  So I told my friend that I probably wasn't going to make it the whole way, and that since the trail looped around, I might "cheat" and cut off a portion of the loop and meet up with her again before the finish.  But then I felt like I had to explain why I was unprepared.  So she ended up being the 3rd person I told about the newest addition to our family.

In the end, I probably ran about 5 miles of the 6.2, and walked maybe another 1/2 mile.  And as always, once I crossed the finish line, I felt like I should have run more and pushed myself harder.  And the run itself felt good.

But let me tell you that afterwards I paid for it.  Maybe I could call this one of my first major pregnancy symptoms.  I wasn't even to my car in the parking lot before I realized there was more than a $10 price tag for this run.  My back hurt so bad that I could hardly move.  By the time I got home, I was afraid to pick up any of the kids and found myself a few times that day asking Tim to lift them for me.  Chiropractor bills started floating through my imagination and I later that day, I found myself searching on line for how on earth I could manage chiropractic care throughout the pregnancy with insurance that doesn't cover a lick of it.

Thankfully, after a nice (long) nap on the couch and a hot bath, I began to feel a little bit better.  But I definitely began questioning how to continue exercising throughout this pregnancy AND wondering if this was going to be a foreshadowing of the next 8 months!  YIKES!

On an unrelated note, I was caught somewhat off-guard by one of my friends questions in response to my big news.  After telling her I was pregnant, she said, "Was this the timing you were hoping for?"  For some reason, that surprised me.  Even though we had only told a few people at this point, it was the first surprised reaction I had gotten, and I guess it surprised me only because it came from someone who knew me.  I would expect that from people who don't know us well, but I didn't expect my friends to be all that surprised.  Plus, the question makes me laugh, in general anyway.  It's really just a more polite, PC way of asking, "Was this planned?"

I am glad to say YES!  And I'd even go so far as to say Divinely Planned!