Saturday, June 2, 2012

Belly Picture and Updates

It's now a little dated, but here's my 25 week belly picture, taken on 5/17. I feel like I look puffier in the picture than I do in normal life, but still happy that the jeans I'm wearing are my pre-pregnancy capris I bought last year. No, they don't button, but at least I can still get them up around my hips!


I'm now 27 weeks pregnant, and happy to report that after a bout of sciatic nerve pain over the last week, most likely brought on by doing too much yardwork, it has calmed down so I can run again. I opted to take the week off and went swimming and walking for exercise instead. Friday morning I woke up and went for a 2.5 mile run/jog (my pace is now a slow 11:30 average) and felt great, so I signed up last minute for the Hospital Hill 5k, which was being held today, June 2nd. Joe had been training to run the half marathon, and I'd been quietly hoping that I could keep running and do the 5k, so I was really excited when I was able to register so late (the race usually sells out before the race weekend) and knew I could run.

We didn't sleep well at all last night, and even Joseph was awake at 5:50am, probably because he could hear us getting ready. Joe had prepped him that we were going to a running race, so although he was still really sleepy, he was excited when he remembered he was going to a race and hopped out of bed. He didn't even give us any trouble about going potty before getting in the car - potty training started this week, but that's a whole separate post, waiting to be written!

We made it to Crown Center by 6:30 and met up with Scotty and Tricia. All of the races started at 7am, with the runners in separate corrals this year. Joe's anticipated time qualified him for the A group, Scotty was in the B group, and I brought up the rear in the F group. Tricia was great and didn't mind watching Joseph for us while I ran my race, and luckily he was happy to sit in his stroller, watch all of the people and eat a donut.

Hospital Hill is known for being the 2nd oldest half marathon in the country, and for it's hilly course. All three races (5k, 10k and half marathon) start out on the same course for the first 2.25 miles, which is mainly uphill.  The 5k splits off, goes down a short hill, back up another hill, and then has a downhill finish back at Crown Center. While I've been consistently running 2-3 miles 3 times a week, I haven't focused on hills, and honestly have been trying to avoid them, so I didn't know how the race would go.

I ended up having a great race, only stopping to walk for one minute about 2/3 of the way up the biggest hill.  I managed to beat my estimated 35 minute time, and crossed the finish line in 34:35, putting me in 853rd place out of 1710 runners in the 5k, 441 out of 1083 women, and 56th in my age group of 160 women ages  30-34. Not bad for being 27 weeks pregnant!

Joe also did amazing, smashing his personal record and finishing the half marathon in 1 hour, 40 minutes and 16 seconds! Tricia also took a bunch of pictures, so once she sends them to me, I'll be sure to add them to the blog. 


1 comment:

Ashley Olson said...

You look fantastic!!