My First Race with the Bambino

Wow I have a lot to catch you all up on..so I thought I would go in order.

Back in January the Hubs and I signed up for the Salt Lake City 1/2 Marathon. It felt good to have something to train for, especially coming back from an injury. If you have never ran in a race (any distance) be warned..they are addictive!

The SLC 1/2 wasn’t until April 16th so I had a while to get back into long-distance shape. I had worked up to about 8 miles when I found out I was pregnant. Once I found out I was so worried that I would hurt the baby or do something to mess up the pregnancy that after a few shorter runs I stopped running altogether. I was still working out but a lot lower impact and mostly workout dvd’s. I had talked to the nurse on base and she said that although I might be able to run the 1/2, she didn’t recommend running that far during the pregnancy. I had pretty much decided that I wasn’t going to run but it is really hard for me to just sit on the sidelines. I finally came up with the brilliant idea of switching from the 1/2 to the 5K..I mean I should totally be able to run 3 miles…right??? The race people were really nice and let me switch it without a problem.

The weeks went by and I attempted running a couple times, but running while nauseous really isn’t fun. The only thing that kept me going was the cute shirt that I had made :)

The week before the race I was in Cali at the beach with my family. I flew in two days before the race and we were leaving the day after the race for Maui. It was a crazy weekend! One of the things I was really worried about was getting up early. It seems that the earlier I get up the sicker I am. A few days before I finally gave in and started taking the Zofran the doctor had given me for the nausea..it is magical! I totally didn’t get sick anymore and haven’t really since then (well expect the flight home from maui but that is a different story).

I was kind of nervous the day of the race because I realized that I hadn’t run at all for two weeks and hadn’t run more than 2 miles since I found out I was pregnant. I figured I could just walk/run and I tried to remind myself not to get wrapped up in the completive part and just take it easy. We got their pretty early because the hubs had to be there earlier for the 1/2.

The fun part was that the race started and ended in an outdoor shopping center in downtown SLC (the Gateway for anyone familiar with the area). Too bad it was too early for the shops to be open :) Although it was really cold waiting for the race to start, it went better than I expected. I think the worst part was that the first 1/2 was mostly uphill (gradual) and for someone who hasn’t ran for a while that was a little tough. I defiantly went slower than I did pre-bambino! I only had to walk up one steep hill and I did okay running the rest. It was so much fun and it reminded me how much I love running :)

I was tired but I was really careful not to overdue anything. When I left for the race that morning I planned for this to be my last race before the little bambino arrives. However,  there was a girl behind me who was about 6-7 months pregnant and when I saw her finish the 5k I made the goal of running a few more 5 k’s in the coming months and I am hoping to be able to run the Air Force 5k in September. The hubs is running the full and I had planned on running with him before the baby so it would be fun to still be a part of it. I am playing it by ear though and I will see how I am doing around that time.

So anyways, our little bambino has now completed it’s first race :) And just so everyone knew I had to make this shirt:

It might be hard to read but it says “Little Marathoner in training”.

Stay tuned for the Maui recap and a baby update :)