Dear Belly...

Dear Belly,

As if there was any doubt, these past couple weeks have made it officially-- you are popping!  Holy moly!  My skin feels like it is stretched to the max already and everyone tells me-- this is just the start... you (and baby) will grow like crazy in the coming weeks.  Can we say-- stretch marks, here you come.    I don't know if I am ready, but they say there is no turning back now, and this little bambino only has about 1 way out! 

So, Mr. Belly-- if you would, go easy on me.  I have not invested in maternity clothes and need time to find things to wear.  For some reason, my office does not think running t-shirts count as "business casual" even though its starting to feel like that may be all that fits me soon.

Do we have a deal?

Sincerely,
Running for Two

PS-- here is a photo of this growing belly at week 23 (last Friday).  As if the running snapshots below don't capture enough.  Compare to week 20 here and you can see what I mean has happened in a couple weeks!!

rACE dAY pHOTOS

I have to crack up at these photos, because you can literally see my belly get bigger from start to finish... ha!

 

This first photo is about mile 3... running between stepdad and bro-in-law.  I do have to laugh at myself that my belly support band is hanging out in all these photos.  (That and the pastey white legs, which are always good for a laugh.)

 

hello with the growing belly in the photo above...

Running for TWO...

my sweet hubby, was like, 'what was with the peace signs in the photos?' I am like-- 'hello babe... running for two?!'

And finally-- me on the far left crossing the finish.  Ignore the time on the clock in the photo-- I was obviously not in the first corral to start!!  I will tell you, I finished in 2 hours and 18 minutes.  Yeah, it was my slowest time ever, but i was ok with that!!



Finally-- one that shows yet again, why I love my hubby.  look at the sweet sign he made up and held near the end of the course!  This is me holding up the sign he made (after finishing the race).  Again with the white legs and belly band hanging out... I crack me up!

Race Day!!!

The race went fantastic and for the most part, I felt really good and weird pregnancy symptoms were tolerable.  I ran the half in 2 hours and 18 minutes (yes, this is my slowest time ever, but certainly not the worst I have felt, and I am 23 weeks prego!).  So, I will take it!!

Little Squirt did great in-utero.  There was a time about mile 9 that this little kiddo felt like they were doing flips in there... and my belly would go further out and then back in.  Also combined with a feeling of sudden urgency to either pee or poo at those moments.  Luckily, that only lasted about a mile... it was odd.

I am very thankful to my step dad and brother-in-law who ran with me, and kept my pace when it slowed a bit after mile 5 or so.  We had kept about a 10 minute/mile pace at the beginning, and then I/we began slowing down a bit.  I said I felt fine, but all things in my hip/tummy/groin region started feeling odd which is hard to keep full pace through.

My wonderful husband got some photos at various places along the course I would like to post later.  He was great-- he would hold signs and wave, then run ahead to get a photo.  He also made the sweetest sign for me (and little Squirt as we refer to this baby).  I love my hubby so much-- I am so blessed and can't wait to begin the chapter or parenting together too.  Ok, sorry for the tangent off of running... I'm just crazy about that guy!

And shameless plug-- if you want some cute running gear, visit my website-- RunningForTwo.com  I hope to add more and keep up on the gear that others sell too.  I got some comments on my shirt and logo, which was fun.  "One lady said, is this baby's first race?"  To which I smiled and said "yes" and she responded with a "congratulations" as she continued to pass me... ; )

I did notice in the photos (to come) my belly seems to grow as the race goes along.  What's up with that?!

Countdown

Race is in 3 days... ahhhhhh!

Can this prego mama get her running groove on at 23 weeks along?
Will the urge to pee subside long enough to make it 13 miles without a port-a-potty pit stop?
Will the temps stay low?  They are forcasting a high in the 80's that day!
Can the weird groin/hip pains hold off for me?
Is my pace going to be close to what it has been for my training runs?

Here's to running while prego, and all the fun along the way!  For better (or slow) I am looking forward to making my goal-- a half marathon under my belt while pregnant-- check.

Preview Party

This post will have very little to do with running, other than to say-- below is a preview of our little guy or gal that has run these past 5 months along with me!  We can't wait to meet him/her in August!  (Have I mentioned that we are keeping the gender a surprise until birth-- though I did have my first gender dream last night and it was a girl).  We'll see.

In other news... here is a preview of the baby's room.  I am into the blue and green right now as evidenced in this photo and in my choice of current blog colors.

In the running world-- tonight is the last training run I will have until the race-- which is Saturday.  I am also on my 3rd pair of shoes!!!  Yikes!  I have only had 2 runs in them so far which is not my ideal situation before running a half-marathon, but so far they seemed ok.  Plllleeeeeaaaase Mr. Shoe, treat my feet, legs and hips well-- they are carrying a baby bump!

Curious about the newest shoe?  I abandoned the Nike shoes they kept trying to push on me (who heard of Nike being a great running shoe anyway... shesh!)

The newest shoes are Brooks Adrenaline GTS shoes.  Despite all the shoes I have ended up with-- I do not aim to have pink shoes!!  Third time is a charm as they say...                    

I will update on how the race goes Saturday-- stay tuned.  I do plan for this to be my longest run during pregnancy and will begin to taper my miles back down to the 3-6 mile range.

1 Pound

Had a great day today personally-- hubby and I got to see our little Squirt in an ultrasound.  What an amazing miracle to see and amazing technology!  We are holding off on finding out the gender to which everyone there seemed pretty excited about.  Only the ultrasound tech knows the gender and she was not writing it in the chart, so the doc will get to announce... IT'S A ... Exciting!

Little Squirt weighed in at about 1.2 lbs.  Good Lord willing, this little one is tracking along great and she said I may delivery earlier than my due date of august 20th since the ultrasound said I was a little further along!  To see that little face and hands and feet was WAY cool today!  I had a couple tears of joy!



Ran 4.3 miles tonight... only a couple more training runs until the half marathon!  I am pumped! 

As they say-- third time is a charm. Got new shoes again last night.  They seemed to do ok on the run tonight, so here's hoping!!   I also wore a belly band support for the first time during the run.  I didn't notice any real difference there.  Quite honestly, my belly doesn't protrude a lot yet, so I am not sure if it was "supporting" much.  Still, it was not at all annoying or noticable on the run, so I will keep wearing it  (And it was over 80 degrees here today!!)

Below is a pic of me looking down... (Had to lean forward a bit to get my shoes in there).

Also, is a preview of my running singlet I plan to wear the day of the run... more pics to come from race day!!  It is a logo I created.  (I am also wearing the support belly band in this photo)



And in case anyone wanted an update... the doc said that my hip and groin pain were perfectly normal (that is what I had read too) and was just ligaments and things moving and stretching.  She said it is of no concern and as long as I could deal with it while running, there was no medical reason to worry.  Yeah!  (Now to push through any discomfort during the race!!)

Side note-- she said the main thing they would worry about is if I was having steady throbs of pain in my abdomen or back spaced out in increments of 5-10 minutes (I guess that would be contractions).

So, other than the mental perseverance, I am good to go.  Hopefully it just prepares me for the endurance required for labor (which we hope to do naturally!)

New Shoes

One part I learned early on in running is that you HAVE to have the right shoe.  No, ifs ands or butt.  Go to a running store, suck up the extreme price and reap back every penny. 

All that said, in our city, the "it" running shoe store changes from time to time.  You want a store that has sales people that know how to measure your feet and account for the various oddities that is everyone's foot, stride, etc.

I went to the latest recommended store.   They measured, they ran me in a neutral shoe on a treadmill while being video taped, and tried me in various shoes.  I was confident with the process until the lasy started to try me in about every shoe they had... it really should be more of a science and only certain shoes should work.  I was literally there an hour and a half!  But, I left with shoes that felt good and hoped they worked. 

Fast forward three weeks or so of running in the new shoes.  They were not working for me.  My right foot would fall asleep mid-run.  Talk about a strange feeling!! 

Shoe that I had which just got replaced by the Vomero 5, newer model and a size bigger.



I finally went back with the shoes yesterday after trying everything--  loosening, tightening, shifting, etc.  I got a different chic and she measured me again, bumped me up a size and sent me on my way with the first shoe I tried on (and it felt good)!  Its a Nike Vomero 5.  Its brand new, so I could only find a photo of the last shoe I had (that did not work!)

 Here's to hoping for a good run tonight in my new shoes!

8 Mile Run

So, we had a nice run on Saturday-- the weather was fantastic-- after the complete downpour in the first five minutes of running.  I think it helped our pace though to be soaking wet and motivated to get dry! ; )

A few ways you know you are a pregnant runner:

1. Throughout a run you feel the extreme urge to pee.

2.  If you give in to said-urge-to-pee, you will find that all you get is a tiny trickle.  (Hello, baby bouncing on bladder!)

3. Muscles tense, ache or slow you down that you didn't even know you had 2 seconds before.

4.  Water is your friend.



On that note, I do long runs with a Camelbak on.  What a great invention.  I seriously do not notice it is there and have water available at my every whim without stopping! 

After my 8 mile run this week, I had a pretty bad hip pain on my right hip.  By this, I mean, it was painful to lift my leg, due to the throb it caused in the front of my hip!  Ow.  By the next day, it was fine again, but ow it hurt the rest of the day after the run!

Also, another weird symptom to share, out of full TMI-disclosure.  After I run I have a throb in my groin area for about an hour-ish while standing.  I think this may be due to the constant urge to pee, but I will make sure to ask the doc next time.  Its not painful, just a wierd feeling.

So there you go, I think we covered some fun topics in this post.  Peeing, hip pain, throbbing and such. 

I leave you with a pic of my baby bump at 20 weeks.  (We are waiting until the birth to find out the gender!)  How exciting is that?!



 

Flashback to First Trimester Running

 
And now, I have officially moved into the second trimester and truly feel better.  The nausea has subsided and though I still have a weird taste and drooley feeling in my mouth, I can deal.  More on 2nd trimester runs in future posts.

Alright kids, hang on, we are going to take a trip back in time... to the first trimester.  Since some people find it a little odd, or scary or cool that I run while pregnant, I thought I would share some of the experiences along the way in the first trimester, before this blog was around. 

(It's a time machine... for our trip back, get it? Oh well.)

 

I have been running since I was about 7 years old as a hobby that my stepdad got my sister and me into... never anything more, I am not very athletic and I am certainly not lightning fast!  But I enjoy running.  I enjoy the goal of a race looming out in time.  So when I knew a baby was a possibility, I never considered not running.  I had been consistently running year-round again at least a year before becoming pregnant.  SO that is the history there.  

At my first OB appointment, I had only a couple questions-- the one for this post was-- "I have been training for a half marathon I plan to run in April, are there any guidelines for my continuing to run and build miles?"  Her response was-- 'no, just keep your heart rate under 160.'     

Ok, I thought, not a biggie, though I had not monitored my heart rate, ever!  (See note above about not being a die-hard athletic runner).  Well, that night I wore my trusty heart rate monitor (the one I just had to buy and had never used).   I don;t run fast, and have no trouble breathing, so I was SHOCKED when I could not keep my heart rate under 160 without basically doing a snail crawl of a jog.      

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=heart+rate+monitor&x=11&y=20

Well, that was not going to happen.    

I just had the intuition that the body that was able to create a baby with regular running, could sustain a baby while continuing to run.  (Plus, I am stubborn...  But I wanted to be an informed stubborn mule.)  So I began buying books...    

First I read:    

Runner’s World Guide to Running and Pregnancy, by Chris Lundgren    

The book is filled with a bunch of stories and a little scientific info devoted to running while pregnant.  The stories were more a pep talk, and a lot of them seemed like they were from forever ago... pregnant in the 90's, really?     

http://www.amazon.com/Runners-World-Guide-Running-Pregnancy/dp/1579547478/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271781676&sr=8-1
 

Then I read:   

   

Exercising Through Your Pregnancy, by James F. Clapp      

Despite the ubber cheesy cover that also is a 90's-esc flashback and looks like a power walker instead of a runner, this was/is my favorite book!   It is FILLED with real medical studies and information and put my mind at ease about how to run while pregnant.  Plus, the studies are really motivating for all the positive benefits that exercising while pregnant has on the baby-- it almost makes you nervous NOT to run!    

http://www.amazon.com/Exercising-Through-Pregnancy-James-Clapp/dp/1886039593/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271781904&sr=1-1

Armed with those resources, I set out with a mind more at ease (and somewhere in there decided to actually share the news with my stepdad/running partner why I had been acting a little strange).     

The first trimester was pretty much AWFUL!  I seriously wondered how anyone had a baby in the past, and why anyone would have more than one kid.  I was soooo sick.  Morning sickness would have felt like a slice of heaven... I had all day sickness and drool and ickyness.  Blah.  BUT the one time the symptoms seemed to subside slightly was when I would run.  So if I could work up the energy and effort to lace up, I felt like a million bucks again.     

And I ran, still keeping up runs three days a week  (two short runs of 3-4 miles during the week and a longer weekend run).    

Today's Run

So-- I have a run on tap for tonight... I am looking forward to it.  The weather is BEAUTIFUL and I am feeling the good vibes of the second trimester  <Insert Halleluiah chorus here>.

I should THANKFULLY mention that I have a longtime running partner-- my step dad who luckily runs at a pace close enough to mine that we have maintained running together for years now.  We also have been motivation and accountability for the other person on a lot of nasty weather days when-- let's face it-- had we been solo runners, we would have never run that day!

Here is a shot of my belly these days... we all like to compare, so I will put it out there.  I have gained about 7 pounds overall and I am 20 weeks along (tomorrow).



This photo is 19 weeks... Don't confuse my front and back-- the ghetto bootie is the lower one on the left  and baby bump is on the right  : )  ha ha.