Big Brother/Big Sister 5K 2014

Two years ago I swore to myself I would never do this race again! But this year I came across a drawing on Facebook by Earth Fare grocery store to win a free entry and on a whim I entered the drawing. I am a sucker for value, after all. I wrote: “This was my first 5K that I ever did back in 2009 and I just had a baby 6 weeks ago, I would love for it to be my first post-baby 5K”. I had actually forgotten that I had entered, and when I remembered the day before the race and checked the page I was surprised to see that I actually won one of the 3 entry giveaways!

Since this is a family friendly race I initially intended to run with Bennett in the jog stroller. I just got a new BOB Revolution Flex and wanted to put some miles on it, but at the last minute I decided that it might feel really good to run on my own. I hadn’t gotten a chance to run outside without pushing the jog stroller since he was born. I ended up leaving the kids with Tim at the start/finish line and ran alone.

While I was pregnant I had fantasies about the day when I was able to run again, just me, and how good it was going to feel. I will tell you one thing, running with an extra 35 pounds on your body is HARD! Post partum running is definitely not the same as pre-pregnancy running.

I have only done a few short walk/run sessions so far, so I thought a good goal for this race would be to shoot for trying to finish it without walking … much like the first time I did the same race in 2009. I didn’t look at the time or pace on my Garmin, although I did definitely check the distance a few times. The first 2 miles were difficult but manageable. The last mile was an all out struggle to the finish! I did manage to finish it running though, and was proud of that.