hit the street

I'd written a while ago about booking myself in a race as motivation to lose the pregnancy weight. Saturday was the big day! It was a great course down by the ocean. I didn't really have a goal... although I wanted to run 9:00 miles if I could. I crossed the finish line at about 9:01 per mile. Not hideous for the first time I've raced in a year and only starting to run again 6 weeks ago... I told AJ I'd love to get back into the shape I was in during high school... I was running 7:30s... honestly, it's sort of embarrassing to talk to AJ about any of this because he simply doesn't understand running as slow as I do (I like to brag on AJ: he runs between 5:50 - 6:20 miles for an ENTIRE marathon... see? He doesn't understand running slowly.)

Here I am with the youngest member of my cheering squad.

The cheering squad! One of them slept through the entire race..

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Can you see me? I'm the one waving hysterically at the camera. I'm behind the man in the green windbreaker. I'm pretty sure every person in this photo, besides the child and the man in the windbreaker passed me. I kept telling myself everytime someone passed me as I was wheezing: "I'm probably the only person in this race that gave birth three months ago. No one else just had major stomach surgery. I'm doing the best I can..." Basically it was 3.1 miles of pep talk. :)