So I've Started Running...

A few weeks ago when the grandparents were in town, Brian and I took advantage of the free babysitting (as usual) and went out for dinner.  One of our topics of conversation for the night was about our baby plans for next year - to try or not to try for a baby in Boston.  I (maybe) am going to talk about that in a whole separate post, but the short story is that we came up with our plan that night to try for a baby and the very next day God waved a big red flag in front of our faces.

Since I had been psyching myself up for going through pregnancy again and having a newborn in Boston, all of a sudden I felt a little lost.  I knew that having a baby next year would be a challenge, with Brian's work schedule and being so far away from family, and I had already started mentally preparing for that challenge.  So I thought of a new challenge that could potentially take its place: running the Boston HALF Marathon in October.

I knew there were a couple hurdles to overcome before I can really commit to this goal - one being that the last time I voluntarily ran was in college!  So I decided to get out with the kids and the stroller and give it a go.  That was about two and a half weeks ago and I've been doing pretty well for the short period of time I've been "training."  Of course, running while pushing an extra ~70lbs of stroller and kids only adds to the feeling that I'm about to collapse during a "run", especially with some of the hills we have around the house, so I've been trying to get in solo runs whenever there's another adult around to watch the kids.  I have gotten out three times a week the past two weeks (with and without kids), so I'm proud of that accomplishment in and of itself!

Of course, once we visit Boston and find a place to live and get a feel for how life's actually going to be there, THAT'S when I'll really know if I'll be able to train for a half marathon.  Since we've recently been reminded that Brian will likely be working 14 hour days, 6 days a week, every week, Brian's not going to be super available to watch the kids and I certainly can't imagine doing my long run days pushing a stroller!  But I had already been thinking about a Y membership (for the "free" babysitting) or maybe our apartment complex will have a gym - I'll just have to see what my options are!

A final obstacle is that I've never actually run in any kind of a race before, so I decided to sign myself up for my first 5k race... this weekend!  Unfortunately it was the only local race scheduled at a convenient date before we leave this summer, so it was this or nothing!  If you had asked me a month ago if I could run 3.1 miles, I would have laughed in your face.  But today I did a 2.8 mile solo run and (surprisingly) didn't have to walk once.  So I was super pumped about maybe being able to run the whole 5k... until I hopped in the car and drove the race course before heading home.  And, man, there is one crazy steep hill followed by lots of ups and downs in the last half of the race.  So, we'll see...  But I'll be proud of myself no matter how long it takes me to cross the finish line!