PS:  Wow!  The baby took an extra long nap.  It is all so unpredictable with newborns.  I should have been sleeping instead of posting.  I thought I wouldn’t get this far because she would wake up.  Maybe I can catch a few before she hits her 1.75 hour limit?

PPS:  To avoid a pictureless post…  Milissa at Birth Story Photo took some beautiful pictures of Peri @ 10 days old.  Can’t wait to see the full set!  BTW, it turns out she had a “nubbin” on the side of each pinky and not just one.  You can totally see them in the pics if you are curious.  We will be getting them tied off soon I think.

So I’m huge!  34 weeks +3 at this point (33+2 in the pictures).  I failed in meeting my lofty goals to gain a mere 40 lbs.  I won’t gain 80lbs like last time, but it is looking like 55-60lbs easy.  My mom (who was always a rail thin stick woman unlike me) gained 60lbs with each of her pregnancies.  Coincidence?  Do I just come from a family of heavy gainers?  The light at the end of the tunnel is that I never plan to do this again!

I love this picture.   They do some cool things at Lewis’ daycare.  I think if I were a SAHM his overall education would not be nearly so robust.  Maybe it is silly to talk about educating a 3 year old.  However, as he is getting older and asking me to explain more and more things, I feel like my explanations are woefully inadequate.  The English language is really complicated.  Hats off to teachers who can explain grammar, spelling, and phonics.  Teaching someone how to read is a big freaking deal.

I am sad because his teacher was let go this week.  I really liked her.  Lewis loved her and she loved those kids.  I don’t anticipate him being in that particular class for much longer but I’m really upset.  She was a really encouraging person and gave me lots of insight into supplementing his education at home.

God I miss trail running even though this was not technically a trail run.  This picture was taken at the top of Brasstown Bald on a training run with my friend Angela.  She’s doing big things with ultrarunning this year, I’m so proud of her!

Anyway, Brasstown Bald is the highest natural elevation in GA.  The view from the top was fantastic.  You can see 4 states (Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee).  If you are local, it is worth a trip…even if you take the shuttlebus to the top.

I am 100% sure that I don’t want more than two children.  I simply can’t afford to have another child anytime soon.  At 36 years old, trying for another baby would be something that needed to happen in short order.  I’m not interested in that at all.  I would not want three kids even if I could afford it.  I just don’t have the emotional energy.  So I have no qualms about the idea of making the end of my fertility a permanent thing.  The thought of an accidental pregnancy terrifies me.

The Mister is fine with my decision to not bear anymore children.  However, in our discussions on options, he has mentioned adopting a child.  Record scratch!  Two children period is enough for me.  It doesn’t matter if they come from my body or someone else’s.

I listen to Dr. Laura sometimes on my drive home.  I generally think she is a royal you-know- -what.  But her often harsh tone and dogmatic opinions amuse me sometimes when she faces down ignorant callers who apparently don’t know what she’s all about.  I disagree with her on a lot of things (like mothers working outside the home obviously!), but I do agree with her general opinion on adoption.  She maintains that it isn’t fair to adopt children when you already have minor children to raise.

I totally agree with her.  I feel like my primary emotional and financial responsiblity is to the children I brought into the world.  I can’t see inviting another child into the mix even when Lewis and the baby are a little older.  Children require a great deal of emotional resources.  As a working mother, I already have a split focus.  It seems selfish to me to introduce another child, who likely has their own emotional issues to resolve, into the mix.  It would take even more of my energy to deal with all of that.

There is also the financial aspect.  We need to be saving for retirement a lot more than we are doing now.  I also want to move to a better school district in the next 5 years.  To do that, we have to really attack the second mortgage on our very underwater house just to break even on a sale.  None of these things can even happen until we have kids out of daycare.  After that we will be playing catch up.  Having another child to support would put us further behind on these goals.

What about fairness?  If I had another child, I would need to care for that kid in the same manner that I did my biological children.  There simply isn’t enough money around to comfortably do that.  Expensive and time-consuming extra-curricular activities for three?  Assistance with college?  I feel like everyone would end up getting nothing because we couldn’t afford to treat them all equally.  That is an example of making the kids I bought into the world suffer (#firstworldproblems yes but still…).  That doesn’t seem right.

The Mister thinks that my feelings are selfish, especially since my older sister is not my blood sister.  My mom was a middle school teacher for many years and the plight of one of her eighth graders led her to invite that girl into our home.  She became my sister when I was 9 years old.  My life was absolutely enriched by my parent’s decision.  I wouldn’t trade my family for anything.  That doesn’t mean that I feel the same thing would be true for my household.

I think adoption is a wonderful thing.  If I couldn’t have children of my own I would consider it.  If I had adult children out of the house, I think that fostering kids would be an awesome thing to do.  If I had to take in a niece or a nephew instead of them going into the system, I would do it.  But I feel like it is selfish to purposely take on a “burden” that you know would leave you stressed out emotionally and financially.

I think having a heart for adoption is sort of like having an entrepreneurial spirit.  There are people in this world who have a burning desire to be their own boss.  Then there are people like me who are perfectly content to work for someone else forever.  I don’t think either spirit is better than the other – do what makes you comfortable and happy.

What about you?  Would you adopt a child if you already had your own minor children?  I’m curious!

I don’t have a great way to return to blogging so I’ll just do some randoms today and try to post more frequently.

• As of Thursday, I will be 32 weeks pregnant.  Everything is going well so far and this thing is flying by so quickly.  I had a bit of a “scare” when an ultrasound at the perinatologist revealed that my kid has six fingers on one hand.  Well, 5 fingers and what looks to be a “nub.”  That can mean scary things if there is no family history of this issue.  Thankfully, I recalled my mom telling me that she had a nub removed when she was born.  She also told me that it happens a lot on our side of the family.  That eased my fears (and the docs) and I declined further testing (amnio).  If the finger is indeed a nub they just tie it off at birth and it falls off and dies.  My mother has a tiny bump on the side of her pinky that is the only indication that anything was ever different about her.
• I think I’ve finally accepted the fact that this is a girl.  I even bought her a dress!  The quality was great (Jason Wu for Target) and the clearance price was right ($59->$17).  It also met my qualifications of not making me gag.  I’m not a tomboy when it comes to fashion, but I’m pretty basic.  I like simple but feminine things.  The sheer volume of pink, lacy, sparkly, frilly clothing available for girls requires a major adjustment for me coming from toddler boy land.
• Sister P got engaged over the holidays.  Huzzah!  She is such an organized person that she has already set a post-Christmas wedding date.  I’ll have about 8 months to focus on not looking like a cow in my bridesmaids dress.  I like having a “deadline” even though I plan to be gentle with myself.
• I’m not running anymore.  I completed the Peachtree City 25K in mid-November @ 19 weeks pregnant.  It took me 3:22:57.  I didn’t even finish in last place!  There was another girl there that was more pregnant than I was at the time.  She’s a real speedster when not pregnant, so she finished in a little more than 2 hours.  I don’t think I could pull off 15 miles in less than 2:10 on a good non-pregnant day (my half-PR is 1:53-ish).
• Regarding the 25K, the first 5 mile loop felt great and I ran 95% of it.  The second loop was harder and my walk/run ratio increased.  The third loop felt more like walking than running.  I could have continued on in that manner because “running” a marathon pregnant sounded like a cool idea in theory.  The reality was that my back was starting to hurt and I was tired of feeling like my bladder was going to explode with every step.  They had potties about every 2.5 miles and I stopped at every single time I saw one.  I think 15 minutes of my race time was spent in the bathroom!  As soon as I left the PoP, I felt like I had to go again within 5 minutes – insanity.  This was annoying to say the least.  Since I had nothing to prove, I called it a day at 25K with no regrets.  I’ll talk about my pregnancy exercise experience so far in another post soon.
• The reality of finances with two kids in daycare has me shaken up.  Daycare will cost me more than my mortgage payment.  I completely realize that having children is something I voluntarily chose to do.  It is just sobering to look at the hard numbers.  It is going to be a very tight few years until September 2016 when Lewis is able to enroll in public kindergarten and use school aftercare ($8/day).  His birth date of Sept 12th just misses the county kindergarten cutoff of Sept 1st.  He won’t be able to enroll in K until he is 6 so we’ll have to pay for private care until then.  Sigh.  Why didn’t we think about this when planning to have a baby?!?
• I’m very happy that I only want 2 kids because having another is simply not financially practical given my “advanced maternal age.”  We’ve been making little changes to save money the past few months and continue to look for ways to cut expenses.  I got some great news the other day about a situation and I’m awaiting final written confirmation.  Fingers crossed.

This race started early (7AM) and I live a ways from the Brookhaven area. We were forewarned that parking would be limited, so I made it my business to get there an hour before race start. I was on the road at 5:15AM (ugh) and arrived right at 6AM. I was able to park in the lot but it was filling up quickly and I had to search for a space. If you don’t want to take MARTA (and walk 1 mile to start/finish) I would definitely suggest getting there early.

Having a whole hour to kill turned out to be a bit lonely. This is the second road race that I’ve done recently and I really miss the pre-race camraderie of trail races. Those races are so small and the same people tend to show up. You *always* know someone at the start. I killed time by using the PoP early and then warming up with a brisk walk and the dynamic stretching exercises we do pre-CrossFit workouts. I still had another 1/2 hour so I joined the PoP line because I inexplicably (or not…14 weeks pregnant) had to go again. The line was crazy long this time and I waited 20 minutes.

While I was in line, I noticed an insane number of people sporting the race T-Shirt. I guess that is a consequence of getting your race shirt at packet pickup. BTW, I didn’t mind pre-race packet pickup for this race (as opposed to the BGR 10K) because that is just the way road half-marathons tend to work. Anyway, I know people get annoyed with “the rules” but you just don’t wear the shirt of a race you haven’t yet completed to the race. I was wearing a blue Nike miler shirt (best short sleeve tech shirts ever!) that was way too close in color for my comfort to the race shirt. I felt like a newbie.

I was aware that there were pace groups for this race from packet pickup, but I did not sign up at the time. I will never sport one of those pace group signs on my back. I think it is so sad to see someone sporting a 1:45 pace group sign who just couldn’t hang and is now running for a 2:15 pace. I instantly think – “Poor runner! They must be having a really sucky race!” I don’t want that to be me.

I lined up with the 2:30 pace group almost in the very back. I spotted a lot of BGR voluncheers and runners. I didn’t know too many of these women, but it was good to see a lot of women of color at such a large race. A few years ago, this would not have been the case at an Atlanta half-marathon.

The race started on time in semi-darkness. It didn’t seem like that many runners were present initially, but it took me about 6 minutes to cross the start line. We headed out onto Peachtree Rd briefly before turning into Oglethorpe University. The race director’s were kind enough to provide several spotlights over troublesome areas due to the darkness. I had read several complaints about people stumbling in the dark in past years. It’s nice when RDs listen to practical suggestions.

I gave up on tagging along with the 2:30 pace group when I realized they were doing some kind of run/walk deal. I wasn’t ready to commit to any particular race strategy like that so I bypassed them. After that, I found the course traffic fairly light and was able to set an even pace without too much bobbing and weaving. There are benefits to starting in the back!

Much has been made about the hilly nature of this course and it is true. I think it is more rolling than truly hilly though. It is just that constantly rolling thing that can kind of suck. The downtown half marathons seem to have more long severe hills to deal with in addition to rollers.

I felt really good right from the start and immediately started rolling (ha!) with all the punches the course threw. I walked through the water stops but kept running otherwise. I didn’t pay attention to the pace on my watch, but I did mind my heart rate and effort level. I kept it at a mouth closed/no panting allowed level which for me was a heart rate of about 160-170. That is way above that fabled 140bpm recommeded by some doctor’s for pregnant women (not my doctor). However, effort-wise that was a conversational effort for me so it felt safe.

Once again, I was in the position of feeling way better than I anticipated during a race. The 10K mark passed and my legs felt great. My bladder situation was not so great though so I stopped at the 7 mile PoPs because the line was fairly short. I felt totally pregnant for once here because in the past, I could easily run for 2 hours without having to use the bathroom. Not anymore and this problem will only get worse.

I returned to the course quickly and set out on a chase of this girl wearing a Skirt Sports Gym Girl Ultra (I know my running skirts!) in a unique pattern. Her skirt made her stick out in my mind earlier and I set a goal to catch her. I was so close before nature called so I focused on finding her again even though she was nowhere in site. This is the kind of thing I do to entertain myself for 13 miles!

We had been running on Peachtree Road for a while and now moved back into the suburban neighborhoods of Dunwoody. Cue the rolling hills again. There was a nice bit of running through some park or maybe it was a private school. I usually get to a point between Miles 9-11 of a half-marathon where I am just so over the whole effort. It is so close to being done, but not close enough. On this day though, I was rocking and rolling along. I even picked up the pace a bit because I felt good and the trail was pretty flat. The Skirt Sports girl was still nowhere to be found.

I think we were in the park at this point.

I hit a mini-low point (if you can call it that) while we were in some condo complex type area. After so many miles of rolling hills, there was a long steep one and I just got really annoyed. I had run all the hills at this point and didn’t want to break my streak. I didn’t want to let this one break me but I thought it might. The cheers of some well-placed BGR spectators really encouraged me to pull it out.

We finally turned back onto Peachtree Rd for the home stretch and I knew the next 2 miles or so were flat since we had already run it before going out. Who should I see on this stretch but Skirt Sports girl? I told her that I had been chasing her for a few miles and thanked her for being my “rabbit.” Catching her again after 4 miles gave me a little adrenaline surge. I was also encouraged when I noticed the time clock and realized that I finish under 2:15 if I stayed focused. I ran strong for Mile 12 and then I kicked it into high gear for Mile 13. This was the first mile of the race where I actually felt like I was working hard (ironically enough, my pace did not reflect this).

I pushed a little harder as I turned into the finisher’s chute but didn’t break into a sprint because I appeared to be alone as I neared the final timing mat. However, some dude came out of nowhere and tried to pass me! That happens, I’m not mad at that. I was mad at the fact that he did it in a really half-hearted manner. He thought I was just going to roll over and let him take my place without working for it? I totally started sprinting (bad pregnant lady!) and re-chicked him. As we finished, I jokingly scolded him and said that if he was going to try to pass me at the end he should have put some effort into it. We both laughed and congratulated each other on a good race. I love random runner exchanges like this!

Not happening red shirt dude!

DiscoDiva was hanging out on the sidelines after finishing the 5K earlier. It only took 2 hours, but I finally found a friend (or rather she found me!). I also spotted DailyMile/BGR frield ATL Mimi in the post-race crowd. There appeared to be a lot of stuff going on after the race if you are into that thing. There were massages and music and a results tent where volunteers were writing out the results by hand.

My final tally? 2:13:12 or 10:09 min/mile pace overall. That was good enough for 1564/2809 (a tiny bit off the mid-pack), 668/1516 for the women (mid-pack!) and 143/288 (mid-pack!) for my age group. I was very pleased with how this race turned out. I truly expected to get a 2:30 so to finish more than 15 minutes faster than that was totally unexpected. It is a mystery to me why my training runs (5 miles @ ~11:00-11:30 min/miles) feel so hard, but races feel so much easier!

My splits based on analysis of my Polar watch after the race (because I didn’t pay a bit of attention to pace during the race) were as follows:

Mile 1 – 11:14
Mile 2 – 10:59
Mile 3 – 10:04
Mile 4 – 9:52
Mile 5 – 10:08
Mile 6 – 9:55
10K Split – 1:03:07 *Official
Mile 7 – 11:26 *Stupid Bathroom Break
Mile 8 – 9:49
Mile 9 – 9:55
Mile 10 – 10:22
Mile 11 – 10:31
Mile 12 – 9:53
Mile 13 – 10:03

This was a nice little local half-marathon. It was well-organized and the medal was really nice. The T-Shirt was women’s cut and a nice color. It was a little generic though because it had all of the 13.1 cities on it and nothing specific to Atlanta. I wonder if you get the exact same shirt in other cities? I’ll actually wear this shirt though unlike most race shirts that I receive.

The race course was marked with big signs and a time clock at every mile. I love that. The volunteers were friendly as always and there were quite a few spectators. The course leaves something to be desired though. It felt to me like a run I would map out on a personal training run. There was lots of running through suburban neighborhoods. If you are looking for the sites and sounds of Atlanta, this is not the race for you. The strip of Peachtree Rd that you run down is kind of depressing to me, but it did have the whole flat thing going for it.

The result?

If you can’t/won’t/don’t want to watch videos*, this baby is a GIRL.  The tech was quite sure.  The view was very clear.  There was nothing poking out between the legs and the telltale signs of female anatomy were visible.

My intuition and some scientific evidence has been telling me all along that this was a girl.  A long time ago while I was dating The Mister, I had what I would call a vision.  We were married and on some kind of road trip.  I looked into the back seat and saw my 2 children – a boy and a girl.  It was a weird thing to happen and that picture always stuck with me.  Yeah maybe it was just the “vision” of a perpetually single woman finally in a good relationship hoping for a bright family-filled future…maybe not given the news.

On the non woo/spiritual/touch-feely side, science has fallen on the side of girl too.  My pregnancy hasn’t been much different except for the lack of insane all-consuming hunger that I experienced with Lewis.  That points to girl.  There’s also the Ramzi theory.  At my dating ultrasound (6 weeks), I asked what side the placenta implanted on and the tech said left.  Ramzi says that indicates a girl in 97.5% of ultrasounds taken that early.

The Mister is excited.  He didn’t have a gender preference – he just wanted to know prior to the birth.  My family is out cruising the high seas right now so they haven’t reacted to the news yet.  My mom will be ecstatic because she loves buying baby clothes and clothing for boys is just not as cool.  I predict lots of headbands and dresses coming my way soon.  Oh boy.  I’ve already warned her that I can’t stomach the tutu thing.  Just no.

I am getting used to the idea now that I have confirmation.  I am still scared to death about having to do anyone’s hair.  I know I have some non-black readers (hey y’all! ), so I’ll explain.  The hair thing is a little different for most African-American babies because depending on the texture, it doesn’t just lay down neatly.  The texture can also completely change about a year after they are born.  Lewis had soft small loose curls that turned into tight coils.

You have to put some real work into hair.  Remember that episode of Grey’s Anatomy where Bailey reamed McDreamy about the state of Zola’s hair?  Yeah, all of that!  I have very thick, coarse hair – like two heads worth.  I’m in for a time of it if this child takes after me.  Maybe my mother-in-law will move down here before April so she can help because she braided Lewis’ hair quite nicely!

Baby Afro

After Grandma Hooked My Hair Up

I guess I will figure it out and I’m sure I’m in for some painful sessions where I try to make my unskilled fingers coerce a wriggling toddlers hair into a work of art.  In the meantime, I’m happy that everything looks good so far and I’m working on narrowing down my list of girl names.  Rest assured that Daphne and Velma are NOT on that list.  My son’s government name is uh…special.

*Definitely add this song to your running playlist if it isn’t there!  I swear I break into a (slow) sprint everytime it plays.

I will be 15 weeks pregnant on Thursday so I am officially in the second trimester now no matter what calculation you choose.  Things are going well so far.  Since I’m “old,” I had a Nuchal Translucency Screening a few weeks ago.  The results indicated little likelihood of serious problems.  Based on that result, we decided to skip more invasive testing (CVS or amnio) and just have the normal anatomy scan.  I am scheduled for one more random ultrasound before the anatomy one.  I’ll be 16 weeks then so we *might* be able to learn the gender.  All of this is way more stuff than I did when I was a “young” pregnant woman.

I initially wanted to wait until birth to find out the sex, but The Mister desperately wants to know up front.  It would be good to learn now if I can allow my Mom to go crazy buying girl outfits if we can get rid of all the boy clothes that I’ve saved.  I want a boy so much, but I have a feeling this is a girl.  I will need to get my mind right (and start learning how to braid hair OMG) if this is a girl so finding out early will have some benefits.

Lewis is not at all excited about having a sibling.  Everytime I ask him if he wants a baby brother or sister he says “No.”  He has some cousins and one of them is a “baby” at one.  I swear I hear annoyance and disdain in his voice when referring to the baby.  I don’t want him to be an only child and I think it will be the best thing for his future.  Still a part of me feels bad taking away his status as the one and only child.

Anyway…

Pregnancy Symptoms:  I did not have a lot of awful pregnancy symptoms with my son and this baby has been no different.  I was oddly tired for about a week before I took a positive test, but I didn’t experience much total exhaustion like I did with Lewis.  I wonder if I’ve just learned what tired really feels like (e.g. months of broken sleep with a newborn) so that a little sleepiness doesn’t bother me.  I’m not anti-caffeine during pregnancy, but I found it pretty easy to avoid most of the time.  I just didn’t need it that much.

I had a few weeks of “morning sickness.”  I use quotes because my MS was a joke compared to women who heave all day long and need prescription Zofran.  I just end up having a headache/fever every afternoon like clockwork along with some very, very slight nausea.  It was more like I just didn’t feel great.  It wasn’t anything that stopped me from working.

That’s pretty much it.  I feel bad because I should enjoy pregnancy more given the relative ease of my symptoms.  Most days I simply don’t feel pregnant.  If my first pregnancy hadn’t been like this, I would be freaking out.  I hope that easy street continues and I avoid stuff like round ligament pain, sciatic pain and heartburn like I did last time.

Nutrition: I ate really well for about 10 weeks.  I started having some food aversions for a few weeks after that and the only thing that sounded good was carbs.  My vegetable consumption dropped a lot because the thought of broccoli suddenly turned my stomach.  The salads that sounded delicious at first were not appealing.  Luckily, fruit sounds better than usual.  Honeycrisp apples are back in season and navel oranges taste delicious.  It helps me to feel a bit less guilty when I see at least eat some fresh fruit daily if I can’t stomach green stuff.

Easy proteins that I usually like (roasted chicken, broiled tilapia) make me queasy at the thought.  I tried to push through once and just eat the roasted chicken and I felt sick for hours.  I won’t do that again.  I just have to explore other options and preparations.

The one thing I haven’t been doing is eating way too much fast food.  I indulge maybe 1-2x per week.  At one point during my last pregnancy, I ate fast food (like combo meals) 1-2x a day.  I’ve been handling those kinds of cravings by making that stuff at home.  A grilled cheese sandwich and baked Ore-Ida fries at home has about 500 less calories than the same thing from Zaxby’s.

I think my taste buds have just temporarily changed.  I’m usually a fan of Coke Zero products but now they have this aftertaste that turns my stomach.  It is the same thing with gum.  I could go through a 3-pack of Polar Ice gum in a week pre-pregnancy but now I can’t stand the stuff.  Both of these things happened with my last pregnancy.

Weight:  I gained a total of 7 pounds during the first trimester.  I would have preferred 0 but oh well.  Maybe I am just the type that gains early?  Last time I gained at least 10 pounds, maybe more.  I asked my nurse if she could look up my medical records from last time because I wanted all my prenatal check-in weights.  Unfortunately, those records got archived somewhere when they moved to a computerized system.  Bummer.

The difference with the weight this time though is that I know that I haven’t been eating like a crazy person.  My hunger levels are not through the roof either.  There have been a couple of days when I experienced that ravenous hunger, but not daily like with Lewis.  Back then I needed to eat something substantial almost every 2 hours to stop my stomach from growling.  My intuition tells me this is a girl.  Maybe this lack of insane hunger is also a sign?

At least one of those seven pounds went directly into my bra.  That didn’t happen so early last time.  All of my favorite sports bras (Moving Comfort Fiona) are barely making it on the last hook now.  They were on the innermost hook before.  I do not like this at all.

Fitness:  The lack of major pregnancy discomforts early on means it has been business as usual for me.  I do CrossFit 3x a week.  I am still doing the same weights I did before unless I feel the workout will get too intense with a particular weight.  I take a lot of rest breaks to keep my intensity levels down.  I haven’t stopped any given exercise yet with the exception of GHD situps.  We don’t do them too often in the gym and I’ve read that you should not do them pregnant.  I tried one just to see how it felt.  I didn’t like it, so I subbed regular situps.

As far as running, I’m enjoying it a little more lately.  I’ve done 2 10Ks and one half-marathon.  I felt great during all the races and ran much stronger than I ever anticipated running.  The funny thing is, I feel better during races than I do on my twice weekly 5-mile road training runs.  I struggle so much during those AM runs for an 11:00-11:30 min/mile pace.  When race days come, I’m like zipping down the road at 9:45-10:30 min/miles like it is nothing.  I can’t explain it.

I’ve also done a couple of long trail runs (5-hour range) where I hike as the need arises.  None of these runs have left me sore or caused any weird discomfort so I feel good about them.  I always go into the long runs ready to cut them short if anything gets funky.

I’m signed up for a trail 50K (planning on doing about 25K of that) in a few weeks and considering a low-key road 25K/50K in early-November.  I want to take advantage of running while it still feels good.  I’m not going to be strapping on braces and belly supports to run so I’ll just enjoy it while it lasts.

Since I was just coming off the 16-mile training run, I didn’t expect a really pleasant experience for this race.  I felt fine physically and all, but I had a long hard day on the trails and this race required an early start.  Add in what was supposed to be a hilly course and my expectations were low.  I didn’t set a goal for myself or anything, but I figured I was looking at 1:10 or something like that.  In my early morning runs around the neighborhood, 55 minutes was becoming the standard for a 5-mile loop.  1:10 felt like a reasonable loose target for a 10K.

I made it a point to participate in the race, in spite of some of the logistical headaches it presented (I’ll mention those later).  I went to one of the first local Black Girls Run! meetups back in March of 2011 and socialized with a small group of women, including the founders, for the Georgia Half that year.  Shortly thereafter, the group expanded from a blog into movement.  Black Girls Run! hosts free running groups all over Atlanta and in other cities nationwide.  The obesity rates in black community are sky high.  BGR is on a mission to change that at a grassroots level.  This year, the ladies organized their first national conference capped with a co-ed 5K/10K race.  I simply couldn’t miss out on supporting this event.

The race was held at Atlantic Station and the area was buzzing with excitement.  Atlantic Station really is a perfect race location logistically.  There is plenty of free parking, the area is nice and well-lit, and you don’t get trapped into taking MARTA.  Atlantic Station also has its own bathrooms in addition to the port-o-potties scattered around.  When there are a lot of women running a race, you can never have enough bathrooms!

Since I’ve gotten hooked on trail races, I can admit that I was a little lonely at the start.  I’ve gotten used to showing up to a race and knowing the majority of the few participants.  I spotted a DailyMile friend but that was it.  I was unable to meet up with DiscoDiva and I couldn’t find her in the crowd.  At a normal race, this would not be too difficult because when there are only a handful of black people running, you can find anyone.  That was not the case here when there are 2K black women all wearing some form of Black Girls Run! apparel.  As I lined up for the race, I did run into Lorraine (Run Wifey Run) and Renee (Renee J. Ross) and was so happy to see them and have someone to chat with for a bit.  I admire both of them so much as bloggers and mothers who work hard to get their fitness on.

Picture courtesy of Lorraine

The race fittingly began with the playing of Leah LaBelle’s “Sexify” which relates to the “Preserve The Sexy” tagline featured on some of the BGR shirts.  I’ve loved this song since I first heard it this summer and it put me in a good mood right away.  I started off at a relaxed pace but I was moving much faster than I believed I would.  I found myself bobbing and weaving around a ton of people and passing them rather than holding back or walking.

The rather hilly nature of the course soon revealed itself.  I expected that I would walk.  I didn’t.  I slowed down the pace and reigned in my effort level but I felt great so I pressed on.  Two miles went by in a blur.

The crowd started to thin out as the 10K runners split from the 5K runners and I hit that zone of feel good running.  I decided that I would see how long I could ride out the good times and resolved to only walk through the water stations.  There were more hills and some long inclines, but I kept running.  I didn’t watch my pace during the run because I try to note my HR more than my pace.  When I hit my lap button at the mile markers, I noticed that my split times were better than they have been in a long while.  I was totally shocked because I haven’t seen a 9 anything on my pace in a while.  I certainly can’t credit the weather for the boost in speed because it was fairly warm even with the 7AM start.  Maybe all the crazy trail hills from the day before made road running with some hills thrown in feel really easy?  I guess this could be the cardio equivalent of how I feel when I do heavy lifts at the gym.  When I switch to another weighted exercise, say 35lb kettlebell swings, those swings feel super easy by comparison.

After cutting through GA Tech, we rounded the corner to Northside Drive and I saw the real hill.  It was a monster – long and mean.  This was Mile 5 and I really didn’t want to stop here because I had been running the whole time (except water stations).  People all around me were walking so I had to block them out of my field of vision to stay focused on running.  There were crowds of people cheering us up the hill and that was so motivating.  My burning calves wanted to quit, but I just couldn’t ruin an exceptional run by walking in the last mile.  I made it to the top of the hill and congratulated a few other ladies who had run up with me on a job well done.

The rest of the course was cake so I tried to pick up the pace a bit.  In spite of having a good run, I was eager to see the finish line.  I had no idea of my total run time, I just knew that I felt great and was challenging myself but not killing myself.  I was shocked to see 1:02 on my watch.  My official chip time was 1:01:56 with a 9:58 min/mile pace.  This was much better than the 1:10 I anticipated so I was very pleased.  Not bad for 11 weeks pregnant and definitely not bad after tackling 16 miles of Coosa/DRT the day before.  Not bad at all!

My split times were:

Miles 1 & 2 – 10:44
Mile 3 – 9:52
Mile 4 – 9:53
Mile 5 – 9:13
Mile 6 – 9:38
.2 – 9:20

DiscoDiva somehow managed to spot me after the race in the crowd of women in Atlantic Station.  We ended up finding a bunch of bloggers and Twitter friends (SimplyB, Tazzee, K.Rock and others).  I had a great time chatting and soaking up the party atmosphere.  It really was a party complete with a DJ and everything!  There was even some impromptu group performance of “The Wobble.”  I’m not a dancer and I don’t listen to much radio so I don’t know that dance.  I don’t know how to “dougie” either.  The only fairly recent group dance I can hang with is the Cupid Shuffle.  I’m so lame.

Picture stolen from K. Rock

The BGR race organizers did a phenomenal job on their first race.  As someone who has run a lot of races, I don’t say that lightly at all.  All of the basics were covered (sometimes folks don’t even get this right SMH) – chip timing, adequate parking, plentiful water stations, cheerful volunteers.  The course was interesting and challenging.  There were even post-race foodstuffs handed out by Publix and ice-cold PowerAde from Coke.  I was truly impressed.  I ran another race put on by a long-standing organization of African-American runners in the city last year and I wasn’t nearly as impressed.

We even received a quality medal at the end of the race.  I felt kind of indifferent about getting a medal for a 5K/10K.  But people were genuinely excited about getting some hardware.  A lot of these women had never run a race in their lives or thought they could do such a thing.  This was not just another medal for them.  I changed my tune when I thought about it that way and realized that I take a lot of things for granted.  I can remember how excited I was to get my first medal (2007 Atlanta Half Marathon).

This race was truly something special.  There were women of all shapes and sizes out there.  I’m not talking about just a handful of non-size 6′s sprinkled in the crowd like usual.  I freaking loved it and I’m truly glad that I ran the race.

There were a couple of things I didn’t love though.  There was no race-day packet pickup.  That is simply not standard operating procedure for a 5K/10K.  I like my race experiences to be a hassle-free as possible.  I’m the mother of a toddler and I work full-time.  Driving clear across town to pickup a race number for a 10K does not qualify.  If I didn’t feel strongly about supporting BGR, I would not have run a race with this headache.  That said, the packet pickup at REI ran very smoothly.  I was in-and-out quickly even though I had to use 1/2 hour of my precious PTO AKA future maternity leave to extend my lunch break.

A minor quibble would be that the 5K and 10K should start at different times.  Walkers should also be clearly directed to start in the rear.  A lot of first time racers simply weren’t aware of this common courtesy.  The first two miles were spent dodging a lot of people.  If I were running the 5K, I wouldn’t want my path clogged up by people running slower because they were running a 10K.  If I cared about my time for either race, I would have been kind of annoyed at the setup.

I also think that it would be great if a race that is 95% geared towards women (even though it was co-ed) should have women’s cut T-Shirts.  The shirt looks great and all, but I’ll never wear it.  I just sent at least 20 boxy race tees to Goodwill last week.  I like cute shirts!

Those are minor things and none of them overshadows the fact that this race was well-done.  I performed well and I had fun.  I haven’t enjoyed a road race this much in a long time!