A Runner Again

I have been running since I was ten years old.  Both my parents are runners, and I grew up going to road races and watching each of them head out the door for a run at least five days a week.  I rode my bike with my mom on her runs and earned a new book for making it up all the hills on her route without stopping.  (I picked my first Babysitter's Club book.)  When I was nine, I went to a women's race with my mom and was thrilled to learn that there was a mother-daughter team award.  I decided that I would like to be a team with my mom the next year.  So I started running.

It wasn't too many years before I could be on the J.V. track team at the high school, and I ran track and cross-country all four years of high school.  In college I met a number of wonderful people in the Williamsburg running club at weekly interval workouts and ran my first Virginia Ten-Miler, followed by my first half marathon.  I ran while I was teaching English in Poland, and my first date with Keegan was a running date.  I ran in Korea on a fantastic road winding through rice paddies and ending at a statue of the Buddha.

I always knew that I would run all the way through any pregnancy, because I never stopped running, and because that was what my mom had done with me.  Unfortunately, I had some complications early in my pregnancy with Sophie, and the doctor told me not to run during the first trimester.  I tried to start up again in the second trimester, but it was not easy to restart, and I ended up confined to walking for the rest of the pregnancy.  The strain of having a newborn who slept fitfully and unpredictably combined with the long hours Keegan was working and the lack of friends and family who could help meant that I didn't run much for a long time after Sophie was born.  I made a few attempts to restart my running schedule, aided by our BOB running stroller, which was the best baby gear purchase we've made.  Soon enough, though, I got pregnant with Annabelle and once again was benched throughout the pregnancy and for the first crazy four months of her life.  Finally, when Sophie started preschool in September I decided that I would get serious about running again.

My first run back was in Colonial Williamsburg, from Merchant's Square to the Capitol and back.  I felt horrible.  Having run for so long, I could never understand why people complain so much about running.  Let me tell you, coming back to running after the break I took to have Sophie and Annabelle STUNK.  I totally get it now.  I felt awful every day for weeks.  I gradually, gradually increased my mileage, slogging along and feeling awkward and ungainly.  Finally, probably two months into my training, I started to feel good again.  That feeling of floating along effortlessly came back, and my pace began to increase.  My heart and lungs started to feel powerful instead of overtaxed.  My legs felt strong instead of clumsy.  I had a brief relapse a few months ago when life was crazy and I felt like there was no time to run, and after only a week or two I started to feel tired, heavy, and grumpy.  Time to get back onto my running schedule!  It's a priority now, and I am able to cram in three runs a week pretty reliably.  My goal is to keep that schedule up, to start doing 5k's about once a month, and then to increase to four runs a week next year when Sophie starts her four-day-a-week preschool class.  My long-term goal is to set a new PR for the 5k and then return to triathlon training, but that may be a few years off.  Wish me luck!