beautiful morning

Ava handing me some water after the beautiful morning run. 

Brandon and I at the finish line-what a cutie. 

Sophia and Ava - these girls are so sweet. 

Sean and Christa after the race did great! Good luck at the Cbus Marathon! 

 My sleepy little Ryder with Brandon while we were waiting to cheer for Glenda who was doing the half marathon. 

Ava and Soph watching the race.

My first race went really well! I was almost puking from nervousness at the start (truth), but as soon as I got started I felt better. I ran into Christa and Sean, friends from church, and we decided to try to run together. I told them to go faster whenever they felt like it because I was still getting my speed back from post-baby.

The plan was to do 9:30s and then go faster if I could. My goal was just to keep it under 10 min/miles and to try to go by exertion, rather than pace. My secret goal was one hour (but I missed it by 1:30). My  pr is 55:02. Someday...Someday I would love to get it under 50.

The Emerald City race was a beautiful run through Glacier Ridge Park. It was beautiful, the morning was crisp and they had a great cheering section.

Anyways, I took one gel and a baggie of sour patch kids and ate one at every mile or so. Nursing makes me so hungry. I was starving by mile 4. However, Christa and Sean were great friends to run with. We didn't stop except for one water break and they went ahead and the end and did awesome. I was just wanting to finish until people kept passing me and then I thought, I am going to kick it in. I finished in 9:24 and 257 out of 899, which I was proud of since I had just started running five miles in mid-July!

So if your deciding when or how to run a race after baby I would say take it easy on yourself - don't go for time - just for completion!

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And give yourself a pat on the back for even getting to the start. It takes a lot of work to balance running and baby, but it's possible!