My First Run in Forever

Yup, you read that right - I finally got to go on a run.  It has been so long!  Last year at this time I was training for the Marine Corps Marathon - I was logging miles and miles training to run MCM in honor of my Uncle (you can read about my training here).  About a week before the marathon I took a pregnancy test and found out I was pregnant.  Hubs and I were ecstatic!  I ran the marathon and that night, at our celebration dinner, we told my family that we were expecting.  Sadly, the very next day I had a miscarriage.  Hubs and I were devastated. We decided to try again and I got pregnant again in December.  Although I knew that my running the MCM while pregnant was not the cause of my miscarriage, it still made me really nervous to run.  So, I didn't run at all during my pregnancy.

I walked.  And walked. And walked.  I was a little sad because I had always envisioned myself running through my entire pregnancy - but I was just too nervous.

Last week I had my six week appointment and was cleared to go running again.  Woo-hoo!!  It had been so long since I'd put on my shoes and hit the pavement.  A few times while walking Evan I had really wanted to break out in a run, but I held back.  So, this was literally the first time I'd run since December.  Wow, was I excited.

Ivan got home from work and I quickly fed Evan and put on my running clothes (which actually fit, unlike my regular clothes) and headed outside.  I was so excited I forgot to snap a photo.

I thought I'd just do a short two mile run and figured I'd have to walk a bit; after all, it had been a while.  The weather was actually a bit warm and I was sweating.  I ran a hilly two mile course and didn't even have to stop.  No walking!  I even added an extra little hill at the end because I felt so great.

Don't get me wrong - my postpartum body felt a bit different.  My abs aren't quite together yet so I felt weak in my core area and my extra-large boobs weren't too happy to be bouncing around either.  It was hard but not impossible.  I felt so awesome when I finished the run.

Then I got a sore throat and have had a bad cold since then, so I haven't gotten back out there.  But, the most important thing was I actually did it.  And it felt great.  My plan is to run the B&A Trail Half Marathon in March - that will be my comeback.  I have plenty of time to train for it, although I'm not excited about training all winter, but it will be fun to get back out there.

So, we'll see how that goes.

But for now, I'll take that 2 mile run and consider it a huge accomplishment!

And since I have no photos of me running, here's a cute photo of Evan...