SLRunningCo 5k - First post baby race

I did it!
My first post baby #9 race.  It was much better than my first post baby #8 race.

Summer has kept me so fantastically busy that I haven't even made time to blog about returning to running.  It has been wonderful!  Long runs are back up to double digits, and are actually going better than the shorter runs.  Go figure.

I have been a little slower than I anticipated.  It seems like last time around I was able to pick up my speed a little sooner, though maybe I'm remembering wrong.   So while my number one goal heading into this race was to finish feeling good, my number two goal was to finish under 30 minutes.  And quite frankly, I really wanted to run my fastest 5k of the year so far.  Considering that I was pretty darn pregnant for my other 5k's this shouldn't have been too hard.  But running under 28 minutes with my current pace looked to be a bit of a challenge, so I just focused on sub-30.  Doable.

Salt Lake Running Company puts on some great events and I was excited to be on top of it enough to get the family signed up for this one.  A race done by a fun group is awesome, a free race is even better!  They just ask you to wear the shirt for the race (which in any other situation is not my thing, but for this I'm totally good with).  Event in exchange for wearing their shirt and advertising them for 3 miles is fine by me!  After the Pony Express 5k there was some entusiasm from the kids about another race, so I took advantage of it and signed the five oldest up along with Aaron and I.
It's a pretty casual event-perfect with the kids-and so much fun!
It should come as no surprise that it just warmed my little heart to have my kids running with me!

This event happened to fall on Sam's birthday-thankfully he's too young to really care that we got him out of bed super early and took him to be a spectator on his day.
That day was also the day before our anniversary (before I got sick thank goodness!), and I'm counting it as an awesome gift that Aaron and the kids ran with me.  See?  I'm totally easy to please.

Malia and Alaina had spent the night with my parents and we were headed to Bear Lake with them after the 5k, so they were there with us.

I highly suggest scheduling things this way as it gives you two adults to hang out with the littles who aren't running!  Babysitting at the race?  yes please!

Emily was asleep, Sam was in a stroller, so that left Charlotte and Lincoln to wrangle, and in an effort to make it easy peasy for my parents to wrangle the littles, I left Lincoln in charge of our little camera so he could take pictures.

Brilliant.
We have about 100 pictures of people we don't know

Some gems like this

And a few that leave me wondering what he was trying to capture.

But hey, he got some fabulous pictures too

(Jacob finishing)

and it kept him happy and occupied!

We had a great time (well, aside from Malia who was plagued with a serious side ache the entire time), and had some great finishes too.  (thanks Dad for the pics!)

Look, she's flying!  I want to look like this when I finish races.

Jacob finished his first 5k in just over 32 minutes and totally happy, barely worn out.  When he and Dallin jetted out at the start I thought he'd done himself in.  He stayed ahead of me for the first mile (which means he was logging about an 8:30 mile!), and though he took some walk breaks in there, he kept up a decent pace when he ran!  We wondered if he had actually gone to the turn around point or if he had maybe cut around a little early, until we overheard him talking about the police at the turnaround and asking whether or not you got arrested if you didn't go all the way around the cone at the turnaround point.  Love the way little brains work sometimes!

Taylor took almost four full minutes off his last 5k, and Aaron shave a couple off of his last race as well.  He was on track to take nearly five minutes off, but he is a good dad and when he saw that Malia was hobbling along holding her side he stopped and hung back to stay with her.

I, on the other hand, was a crappy mom that morning.  Everyone had consented to that though so I could see what I could pull off and if my legs are regaining any speed.
Very happily I did run the fastest 5k of my year.
I came in at 26:34.  Still 3+ minutes behind my PR, but well under my sub30 goal and a minute and a half faster than my previous fastest 5k of the year so I was very happy with that.  There was a little left in my tank at the end, so I know I could have gone a little faster.  Not much, but a little.  With a full day of play ahead of us I didn't want to be completely spent so it worked out well.

It's so fun to see my kids running and having fun, I am so looking forward to more races with them in the years to come!

My whole herd.  Gosh I love these people.