Peachtree Road Race- Part 1

About 4 months ago Dany and I were talking and she was like "I want to try a 10k soon" and I replied "Yea? That could be fun" then she said "What about the Peachtree Road Race?!" and I said "Sure, why not?"...or something like that. Anyway, that's where our idea originated from. Since that conversation we added a couple more to our ranks. Dany, Freddy, Kayla, and I all signed up and waited the couple of weeks it took to find out if we's been accepted or not. As we each got our e-mails on March 25 declaring we were entered in to the Peachtree Road Race we posted our announcements via Facebook and got more and more pumped for it. I found out I was pregnant on March 28.

I know women can/do run great distances during their pregnancies. I know that I could have been one of those women. But honestly, I was just too tired. It seemed that no matter what time of day it was I could not motivate myself to train for that race. I luckily wasn't super nauseous but I was just so tired. For those of you who have been pregnant you know what kind of tired it is. For those of you who haven't been it feels kind of likes this: imagine the most tired you've ever been, then multiply it by 1,000, add in the fact that your muscles feel really weak from the exhaustion, and then go about your normal routine which only adds to the tired. It feels kind of like that. By saying this please understand I am in no way complaining, merely stating fact. And it's not a fact for everyone but it certainly was for me.

The first couple weeks of my pregnancy were discouraging. I had tried so hard to be the person who exercised often and ate right and all of a sudden I couldn't even summon the energy to walk a mile and my first aversion was to vegetables. I was elated to be pregnant but I did feel sad that I could no longer engage in my regular activities without the exhaustion seeping in and sucking away all the little pockets of energy I had. All of this was happening while the longest race I had ever undertaken was looming 3 months away from me. I was adamant toward the end of those 3 months, when my "training" consisted of successfully walking 2 miles, that I was only going to walk the race and would hopefully finish in just under 2 hours. Kayla was very encouraging and she, along with her Brother-in-law, promised to go at whatever pace I needed.

The day of the race had arrived and around 6:15am I got a text from Dany asking "Why did we decide to do this again?" and I replied "Because we thought it would be 'fun'". We all met up at a Marta station and rode to the race. For those of you who have never been to the race let me explain something. There is about a mile long walk from the nearest Marta station to the starting line, and a mile long walk from the end to another Marta station. This is important later. We got to the beginning, and Dany and her brother (Freddy was unable to go) went to go join their waves which started much earlier than ours. As Kayla, her Brother-in-law, and I waited to start we enjoyed the atmosphere and the excitement of the race. Luckily it wasn't raining, despite the 100% of precipitation that was promised, and although it was humid we were at least not boiling under the July sun.

To be continued... (Thus, this being called part 1) :)

A needed update

As most of you have noticed (or no one has as I'm not sure anyone even reads this) but I have not posted since February. There is one really, really, really, good reason for this. At the end of March I found out that I'M PREGNANT!! This hasn't necessarily been the direct cause of my not posting but it has definitely over taken my life and now that I'm well in to my second trimester and feeling better I am going to redouble my efforts to try and pick this blog back up. This paragraph is actually being added to the beginning of a blog post I started about a 5k I ran at the beginning of March so I have left that original post as I started it for you to read.

Original post:
I have been meaning to post about past experiences related to dieting and more about that journey but honestly, at this point, I haven't really desired to relive those experiences enough to write about them. I have been enjoying my new healthy lifestyle and I'm sure at some point I'll want to explain more about the path I took to get here but right now I am happy living in the now.

I have been consistently working out for the longest period I can remember. I started on October 22 and between then and now the longest stretch I took off in a row was a week. This has been a huge victory for me. I now try to schedule my life around exercising instead of making time for it in my schedule. This attitude change has made all the difference in the world.

I ran my second 5k about a week ago (note: this is the one I ran at the beginning of March) and it was awesome! The route we did is a familiar one as it is the one I usually do with Dany and Freddy when we are training for 5k races. There is a pretty good hill in the middle of the course that has always kicked my butt. During this race I had forgotten to double tie one of my shoes and about halfway up the hill I had to stop and retie it. As I stood up to continue running I was struck by the realization that I had made it halfway up the hill and hadn't even realized it! I ran that hill like it was no big deal!! That was just the push I needed to finish out the race strong. I sprinted at the 2.9 mark as Dany as taught me and was able to finish the race in 30:04. I listed the rest of the stats below.

Finished: 30:04      Minute/Mile: 9:41      Overall: 182 out of 586     Age group: 16 out of 53

Present Day:
Since that race I also completed The Color Run at the beginning of April. I ran with Tell and another good friend of mine, Kayla, who had recently gotten bit by the running bug. The three of us walk/ran it and actually still managed to finish in pretty good time. Luckily, that race was more for the fun of it and we really enjoyed playing the different color zones and just having a good time while not being too concerned with our times. I don't have a record of my official time since I forgot to wear my watch that day but we finished around the 35 minute mark.

Before I found out I was pregnant a bunch of us signed up to do the Peachtree Road Race (10k). With the prospect of a 10k looming in front of me I was really excited about the opportunity to push myself further than I ever had. Around the middle of March though I started to become very tired and was not feeling 100%. Now I realize these were the early signs of my pregnancy and it pretty much left me so tried that running was not an option at that time. I still did Zumba but not nearly as often as I had before. Truthfully, I was really disappointed at first. Not about the pregnancy, but just that I had worked so hard to become the person I always wanted to be and now it was all being put on hold. I don't think there is a better reason to change my lifestyle, and at this point it doesn't bother me at all, but I do look forward to having my body to myself again and being able to pick up running more fully in the future.

I have definitely scaled back the exercising. I did Zumba until my membership ran out and plan on starting again after the baby is here but right now I don't feel coordinated enough to try and dance and I definitely don't want to hurt myself. I also did not train like I should have for the Peachtree Raod Race but more on that in my next blog post. :)