Cold Ohio morning perfect for a Thanksgiving race. We were signed up together with our nephew Brandon and his girlfriend Jennifer. At just shy of 30 weeks, Baby M scored yet another race bib, although this time the race volunteers seemed a bit confused, "Um, do you need a timing chip, too?" "No, thanks. We'll just share one."
See me squeezed into a non-maternity running jacket. I LOVE stretchy material!!
We lined up at the starting line and things were already feeling just "tight". Not painful, but not comfortable. I was surrounded by other walkers, and so know that I would have been right in the thick of things, but about half a mile in I just stopped. Stepped to the side to see if the tightness in my abdomen would subside. Thought about how I could just tough it out. But, I'm 30wks pregnant. Now is not the time for an ego and to "tough it out". So, I did the toughest thing I've ever done in a race and something I thought I'd never ever ever do - I quit. Head down, I trudged back toward the start/finish line and tried to get myself psyched up to watch for Stuart and Brandon. Not too long after, I saw them both running shoulder-to-shoulder. They weren't running in a "I'm going to kick your ass" kind of way, but looking like family in stride with each other. Their finish times were 5/100ths of a second apart. This was only Jennifer's 3rd race and she did great, too.
I'm disappointed. There's no getting around that. It has me thinking about the implications of this major change in our lives and its impact on how I define myself, but that's a musing for a whole separate post. In the mean time, I put on my best smile, congratulated my family and headed home to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the family. I know there will be other races. But knowing that my last race for quite some time is already a month behind me is hard.
2 comments:
You should be very proud of yourself for listening to your body (and Baby M). I know that must have been hard. Happy Holidays!
Oh my goodness little mama! What do you expect of yourself at this point? You are lucky you can even get you and your baby belly out of bed, let alone walk a 5K.
Taking a DNF at this point in your race career would be easier to swallow than if you were really fit, don't you think?
Anyway, you and Baby M still got bib numbers and at least one tee shirt, right? Be thankful that you and Baby M are healthy and cuter than ever!
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