A bunch of people in Eric's family were doing the Freedom half marathon or 5k today. I had registered for the 5k a few months before Elliott was born just in case I'd be able to run, and when she came 11 days early I figured the race would be a good goal. Even though I wanted to beat everyone in Eric's family who was running it, I was going into it thinking it would be kind of a practice fake-long-run for me. Eric's parents met me at the capitol building to watch Elliott (Eric was already off doing the half), and I rode the shuttle bus to the start with two of Eric's cousins and an aunt. They were talking about run/walk strategies and waiting for people at the finish. I didn't want them to feel like I was going to ditch them so I didn't really talk about my goal of finishing in under 30 minutes. I used the port-a-potty about 5 times in hopes that I wouldn't have bladder problems, and then we moved to the start and began. I tried to go only a little faster than was comfortable. I had the adrenaline at the beginning, and my first mile was 8:21. I felt pretty good, but I kept slowing down. My second mile was 8:45, and after that I got super tired (probably because I only got 4-5 hours of sleep last night because of Baby, and I've only run up to 2 miles since her delivery 4 weeks ago). My third mile was 9:35, and the last 0.08 (the course was a little short according to my Garmin) was at a 7:51 pace. My average pace for the race was 8:52. So I did beat everyone who was doing the 5K, but they weren't trying to race me and they don't run much. And Eric's sister beat Eric's cousin in the half (though the cousin didn't know he was racing the sister), so Eric and I won a thing of Jelly Bellies from Eric's brother. And the cousin who had a baby 10 weeks ago finished the half in about 3 hours and wished that she hadn't tried to run it.
When we were hanging out after the race we saw Allie and met Fiddy. He seems very British.
Overall it was a good experience. It's a lot slower than I was last summer, but it's faster than I was before last year. Cardiovascularly I was fine, so I think I'll do better once my body gets used to running again. As with the other running I've done since not being pregnant, it feels a lot harder than it should. It's no fun being out of shape. And I'm going to be a bunch sore in my back and pelvis region. But my starting place could be a lot worse, and if I keep doing things that are a little hard they'll become easier.
Also I really need to stop being an emotional eater so I can drop the rest of my preggo weight. That'll help too. :)
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