Riverton 5k

In a perfect world that title would read "Riverton half marathon".
But it does not.

In my crazy mind I was hopeful to net baby girl all of the standard race distances before her birth.
I started out well.  We checked off marathon and 10k back in October during the first trimester, but I was wary to add half marathon in that month as well, not knowing how sick I was going to be this time around or how my body would recover from the marathon.  My backup was the spring halfs, one of which was quashed two weeks ago by a kid's event, and this one which was killed by the reality of being 32wks pregnant with my 9th child.

The body is getting a little more demanding and pushy.  Which is fitting considering it belongs to me, the epitome of stubborn.
I have a disc in my back that slips.  I've thrown my back out a couple of times in the past, but never during pregnancy. This time around it's gone out twice, leaving me hobbling around, angled to the side looking like I should have had a V8.  The first time it happened this pregnancy was the day after Christmas.  Not optimal timing, but not the worst either since Aaron was off work and able to pick up my slack when I went from fully functional to can't stand up or lift anything in a matter of seconds.  A couple of visits to the chiropractor worked their magic and I was back to normal.  As normal as I get anyway.

Unfortunately it went out again at the end of March.  8 days before a race I had been eyeing for months.  At least I was smart enough to wait on signing up, knowing that planning races while pregnant is a crap shoot and I really wouldn't know till just before the actual race day if I was up to it.  I figure it's better to pay a higher registration fee at the last minute that lose the fee altogether.

Some chiropractor magic and a very supportive husband got me through the week and put me in a position to still run, even if it was a considerably shorter distance than I had planned.

Boy was I glad!
I love racing.  I'll never be the fastest and never win anything, but I love race mornings!  The buzz in the air, the excitement at the start line...it's just so darn fun!

Please note my new favorite maternity shirt.  Ok, let's be honest, it's one of about 5 that I own because in general I hate maternity clothes.  This one actually fits-it's not a tent.  Not to mention it's fabulous statement: This is not a speed bump and I am not slowing down.  (Brought to you by the fabulous ladies at anothermotherrunner.com.  One day I'll add the high mileage mom shirt to my collection as well.  Because it has so very many appropriate applications in my life!)

I actually have an awesome pic from the middle of the race thanks to Zazoosh, but all those photo sites are getting smart and not letting you copy pics even though they look fuzzy and are all watermarked when you put them anywhere else.  I may cough up a few bucks and buy it.  Funny thing is that I had to search through all the photos because there wasn't anything tagged with my bib number.  They had tagged my photos with 730 instead of 739.  I had to look up who 730 was...a 45year old named Lynette.  

Dear Lynette, 

I'm sorry that when you try to look up your race photos you end up with a pregnant chick from the next town over.  I hope you are able to find pictures that belong to you. 

Though it was my slowest 5k ever, it was only my slowest by about 20 seconds, and honestly, it was a little faster than I expected to be since the course rolled a little bit instead of being flat or downhill.   I'm trying to remind myself to *not* compare my finish time to my last (and fastest) 5k, considering the very different circumstances in which I ran this. 

Also, I passed ^this^ guy in blue in toward the end, and finally put the chick in purple shorts behind me after we leapfrogged almost the entire 3 miles.  Please note the guy in black behind me.  82 years old.  Awesome.  He started out in front of me and I realized he was running about 9min miles, so I thought I'd just let him pace me.  Yes, I was paced by an 82 year old. But hey, it worked.  And yes, I grabbed him after the finish and told him.  He seemed to enjoy that.  

In the end, 28:02.  Good enough for 7th in age group and 23rd female.  Works for me!  

Baby girl will have to wait and log a half on her own one day.