Marathon Training Mama; Gator Run 10k

Did I write about this at all earlier? My plan to train for and run a marathon as part of my journey to "get my body back"?

That's a thing I'm doing.

ANYWAY, part of my training plan was to run a 5k, 10k, and half marathon before my full marathon on September 13th.

I ran a 5k on Pi day. It was a little perfect, actually. 3.1 miles on 3/14 - then taking tiny pies home from a wedding later that evening.

Since early March, I've been making an effort to slowly increase my run distance each time I went out. 1 mile, 2 miles, 2.5 miles, 3.1 miles, 3.6 miles, 4.1 miles, 4.5 miles, 5 miles...

I was a little nervous last week because I managed to run 5 miles on Thursday night... but cramped up at a mile and a half on Friday. So, I made sure to rest and stretch on Saturday, drink lots of water, eat mostly healthy food.


The 10k we signed up for was Sunday morning. The dude woke me up at THE WORST time - 40 minutes before I needed to get up. That's just how he rolls. I made the best of it and used the extra time (which was not enough to go back to sleep) to pump, so I could run with mostly empty boobs (TMI? Too bad.) and he could eat while I was gone and we'd still be on mostly the same schedule.

We hit the road at 6:20am and got to the starting line with plenty of time to warm up and laugh at ourselves (see above, husband is squatting me). My goal was to run the whole thing. It didn't matter how long it took me, just that I ran it.
T decided to run it with me. He's much taller, stronger, and faster than I am, so I expected him to run ahead, but he wanted to run alongside me. He thought if he ran on his own, he'd get bored, and he was running to support me anyway, so he may as well support me by making me laugh the entire 6.2 miles, right?

That's exactly what he did. We weren't talking. We each had our headphones in, with our respective motivational music playing (both playlists included a healthy amount of Pit Bull). He started with me and then basically spent the rest of the run sprinting up ahead, walking until I caught up. He danced. He literally ran circles around me. He held my hand the last tenth of a mile.

I kept a consistent clip of pretty slow because I didn't want to burn out, and I didn't - maybe next time I can run a little faster. :P

It was dusty and windy in Simi on Sunday, so I finished the run feeling grimey, but proud. Not nearly as fast as my last 10k, but like I promised myself, I did manage to run the whole thing - the furthest I've run in over a year.