Run, Mommy, Run: Part II

Here is Part II.  To go back to Part I, click here.

April 21, 2012 – Thrill of the Grill 5k, Plano, TX

After seeing me cross the finish line at the previous races, Isaac caught the running bug.  He begged me for a couple months to let him run a race with me.  I was reluctant at first because he’s so little.  I worried that he would get trampled or that I’d have to carry him for 3 miles.  Considering I was having a hard enough time carrying MYSELF across the finish line, the thought of carrying a crying, 40 lb little boy several miles made me nauseous.  But then my lazy inner self came to the realization that I could fulfill my monthly 5k obligation but take it easy for once, no pressure to beat a time or to run past the cheering sidelines.  I mean, if I have a 5 year old with me, of course it’s ok to walk more than half of it.  I invited my niece to walk/run it with us as an extra motivator for Isaac (and an extra pair of arms to carry him in the event that he got tired.)  The morning of the race, he was so excited and I still love to look at the pictures I took that day before and during the race.  And much to my surprise, he was a trooper for 2 ½ miles!  He ran, jumped hurdles over the orange cones and chatted away the entire time. 

Talking and running simultaneously just doesn’t happen with me, so I was impressed.  It’s all I can do to preserve enough oxygen to stay alive, but he didn't seem to struggle at all.  We probably walked half and ran half.  At the 2 ½ mile mark (which was UPHILL), he decided he was done.  I carried him about 20 steps and then my niece took over for an entire ½ mile.  When we got to the last leg before the finish line, he was ready to get down and he took off running.  We finished the race together in 45:52, not too shabby for a 5 year old’s first 5k.  I was a proud mommy.  J

May 12, 2012 – Head for the Cure 5k, Plano, TX

So, between my awesome March race and this one, I got lazy.  I didn’t train much for the April race because I knew I would be walking most of it with Isaac and I used that as an excuse not to run before work or go to the gym.  Or eat healthy.  I pretty much fell off the wagon in those 6 or so weeks.  I think my March PR (personal record) was due to 1) consistent training and 2) weight loss.  It’s a whole lot easier to lift yourself off the ground and gain speed when your butt isn’t weighing you down.  Which explains my awful run times in the beginning.  As my sister told me once, I thought I was running back in those early running days but in reality, I basically walked with a hop.  I was booty-licious, minus the –licious.  So anyway, this May morning was ridiculously humid.  I could feel it sticking in my lungs long before the race started.  I was tired from lack of training and I had probably gained 5 lbs.  Due to these things, my goal wasn’t to beat my fastest time (36:08) but come close to it.  So 36:-something.  Even if it was 36:59. 

This race sucked.  The air was thick and my legs felt like lead.  It was one of those days when I wished I could pull off wearing loose running shorts or even some bun huggers with a sports bra.  But I’m far from the point of running without jiggling.  So instead I ran in my typical running gear of a race-issued t-shirt and yoga capris.  The best word I can give you for a humid 5k without providing a TMI description is…swampy.  Yeah, that about sums it up.  Super swampy and uncomfortable.  I was pretty mad at myself the entire race because I knew I had let myself lose the progress I had made.  As I reached the last 20 yards of the race, I saw familiar faces on the sidelines cheering me on.  Before the race, I had seen my former Team In Training coaches.  I had attempted to train with TNT for a half-marathon in late 2009 but ended up with a severe case of tendinitis in my ankle and could barely walk for 2 months.  So I had quit TNT and hadn’t seen them since.  They recognized me when I said hi and had talked to me (tried anyway) during the first part of the race, but I still had yet to conquer the task of running-breathing-talking.  So at the finish line, they cheered for me and I (surprisingly) survived the race and finished in 37:45.  Not horrible, but the first race since I started that I hadn’t met a goal.  Blueberry pancakes and bacon ended up being my eat-my-emotions meal rather than a celebratory one. 

June 23, 2012 – Seaway Run, Muskegon, MI 

My hometown race!!  I had wanted to run this race for years but was never a runner until now.  So I planned my vacation to MI around this race and was so excited to run it as a family – me, mom, dad, little brother Hunter and of course Isaac (his SECOND race!)  Since the last race, I had continued to be lazy with lazy-fat-girl mentality and told myself, “It’ll be cold there in the morning so no hot and humid run to worry about.  You got this.  Plus, why diet now when you know you’ll be eating like a hog during vacation anyway?”  Yes, this conversation actually played in my head often during those weeks before my vacation so I could justify my laziness to myself.  My goal was again to get in the 36:00 range.  I had missed it by 46 seconds in May and it was crazy humid, so surely I could cut those 46 seconds in 55* temps.  So I told my parents (who had never done a race and don’t run at all) that I was going to run ahead and try to beat my time, so keep an eye on Isaac and I’ll wait for them at the finish line.  Ha!  Hahaha!  Did NOT go as planned.  First off, ¼ mile into the race was a steep hill.  I can handle a short hill here and there, especially if I encounter it once I’ve found my groove, but not at the BEGINNING of the race!  I used up all of my energy by the time I got to the top of that miserable thing.  I had very little left to go on.  Then the stomach cramps started.  The dreaded runners cramps, the kind where you know you’re a matter of minutes away from finding a bush and dropping trou. At one point I started sprinting out of pure desperation, but then felt a sharp pain in my groin area so I had to walk again. I needed something to take my mind off the pain so I texted back and forth with Isaac’s dad, who had come to the race to see Isaac cross the finish line. 

He was also the designated picture-taker so I needed to update him on where I was so he was ready with my camera.   I like to have a finish-line picture at each race, even though I rarely share them with others.  I am not cute in a full sprint, particularly at the end of a race when I look like I’m either going to vomit or stroke out.  After I realized how totally far off I was going to be from meeting my goal, my new goal became simple: beat my parents.  My 55 year old mother who had probably never run before and my 60 year old dad who probably hadn’t run since Air Force boot camp 42 years ago.  If I lost to them, I’d never live it down.  So at the risk of further pulling my groin and/or filling my pants, I took off.  I finished in 41:17, not far off my time from my VERY FIRST race.  Ugh, I was so disappointed.  And to add serious insult to injury, my little munchkin (6) and little brother (10) finished in 42:12, less than a minute behind me.  My parents?  7 seconds after that…   Thank goodness for post-race Toast n’ Jams, one of the best eat-my-emotions breakfasts I’ve ever had.

July 21, 2012 – Christmas in July 5k, McKinney, TX

This was my post-vacation race, so I had very little motivation, an extra 5-8 lbs added onto my butt from all of the ice cream I had consumed on vacation and very little training (ok, none) on vacation.  The only time I ran during my vacation to MI was during the June race.  Isaac wanted to run another one (I think he’s hooked!) so I decided to give myself yet another break and have another leisurely race with my munchkin.  Unfortunately, it was in the middle of a heat wave, so by the time the race began at 8am, it was 92*.  There was a lot of crying and whimpering and complaining going on for the entire 3.1 miles.  Isaac wasn’t very happy either.    He wanted to be carried but I convinced him to just walk as slow as he needed to.  Every once in a while he’d get a second wind and take off running far ahead of me.  This was about the time that I realized that he shares his mom’s poor running form.  Poor kid.  We finished a lot faster than I expected: 43:29, which was 2 ½ minutes faster than his first race with me.  After the race, we both won Chick-fil-A gift cards and I let him believe it was because we had won.  J  Hey, whatever makes him happy.

August 25, 2012 – Hustle for Health 5k, Sherman, TX

 

At this point, it had been 5 months since I had met a goal and 3 months since I had finished in under 40:00, so I had high hopes for this one.  I had just joined a new health club and had been doing treadmill runs.  I love treadmills because they’re so much easier for me than running outside, but they definitely don’t prepare you fully for an outdoor race.  But I figured a few treadmill runs were better than nothing at all.  Remember the huge hill from the beginning of my June race?  Multiply that by 3 and that is what the beginning of THIS race looked like.  Three.  In.  A.  Row.  Who chose this course?!  And it was humid.  I can’t believe that I once complained about running in cold air.  After running this spring and summer in TX humidity and heat, I can’t WAIT for cold weather races again.  After I managed to climb the 3 mountains, I set my sights on a semi-slow guy running near me and decided that I’d just try to keep up with him.  He looked about my age and in decent shape but he was pretty slow (about my speed) so at least if I finished near him, I wouldn’t feel quite so bad about myself.  I had a hard time with my 1:1 plan (walk 1 minute, run 1 minute).  Experienced runners or non-runners may think, “1 minute?!  That’s nothing!”  But when you’re already tired and the humidity is weighing you down, 1 minute of running feels like an hour.  I dream of the the day when I can run several minutes in a row.  I didn’t meet my sub-40:00 goal; I finished in 41:32.  Thank goodness Cracker Barrel was on my post-race agenda. 

Due to the ongoing heat wave and ridiculous humidity, I decided not to let Isaac run this one with me.  Instead, I signed him up to run the 1k fun run with my niece.  He did awesome!  It had started raining right before they started so that helped a little with the heat.  Out of about 25 or so kids, Isaac finished 5^th or 6^th.  I was so proud of him!  I hope running becomes something that he loves to do and that he continues to do it so that he never has to struggle like his mom did. 

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So, those have been my races so far.  This month, I will run my 12^th race, the 9^th of 2012, when I run the Heroes for Children 5k for my 2^nd year in a row.  I’m starting to get back on track in terms of how I eat and getting some training runs in, but it’s hard to say how well I’ll do.  I think my goal will probably be to simply beat last years’ time, which I’m positive I can do.  As much as I love to eat my emotions, I’d rather eat my pancakes and bacon in celebration of another successfully completed race. J  Thanks for reading about my journey thus far.  It’s been exciting, exhausting, painful, liberating and just awesome, even on not-so-awesome days.  I’ll update you on the 4 remaining races of 2012 as they happen. 

Click here to go to Part III