One year later...

I know...it's been ages since I last posted. You probably think I haven't done any running. Well.... I haven't. I do have an excuse though. The day after my 1/2 marathon I found out that I was pregnant. Yup, 4 weeks pregnant at the time of the 1/2. So many emotions came over me the next week or so. Of course my husband and I are thrilled and very excited to be starting our family. As far as running goes, it kind of puts a damper on things. Especially since I am due July 26...right in the middle of race season.


A few weeks before the 1/2 I had made a list of all the races I wanted to run in 2010. It included a few 1/2 marathons the 13.1 Marathon in Boston and the Rock n' Roll half in Virginia Beach, which I had almost convinced my neighbor and good friend Christine to run with me. It also included some local races, the LL Bean 4th of July 10K, Sugarloaf 15K (my friends are running the Sugarloaf Marathon which is at the same time. I'd like to go watch them so I figured I'd run the 15K to kill some time while I was waiting for them), the Beach 2 Beacon 10K and of course the Mid Winter Classic 10 miler. The Mid Winter Classic was the first road race I had ever seen and it's the race that inspired me to start running.... or to think about running anyway:-)

The Mid Winter Classic is today. I am not running.



After a week or so of high emotions and not working out I pulled myself together (as much as a pregnant woman can) and did some research about running while pregnant. I found out that as long as you have been running prior to getting pregnant it was ok to continue while pregnant. YAY! I was pumped. This meant that maybe I could still run a few of the races that were on my list before it got too uncomfortable or dangerous for me to run. I started off with the Thanksgiving races with Danielle. Shortly after that I started to feel the early effects of my pregnancy. I would come home from work at night and be so tired that I was going to bed at 7:00 and I felt so sick. Some people have morning sickness.... mine came at night. It almost felt like I had one beer too many...every night! Needless to say, I did not make it to the gym on a regular basis. I might get in one workout a week if I was lucky.



The old Sarah could have cared less about not making it to the gym but after I finished my 1/2 I was so pumped and proud of myself, I didn't want to stop. I felt like I was just getting going. I had to listen to my body though and take care of myself, which forced me to slow down. People kept telling me "It's ok, you have an excuse" I didn't want my pregnancy to be an excuse to not work out. Just because I am pregnant didn't mean I couldn't be in shape.

After a few weeks of being really bummed about not running or even being able to work out I decided to take some pressure off myself. I decided to hang up my running shoes for the season and not worry about running any races. I would still go to the gym and workout and if I happened to be in shape when the race came around, then I would run it. If I wasn't in shape, no big deal.

That seemed to help me a little bit. I am starting to feel better these days, I'm now 16 weeks into my pregnancy and getting back to the gym.

Over the past few weeks, I've really realized how much running has meant to me over the last year. It was something that I had worked hard for. No one else did it for me. Granted, I have tons of support but I am the one training and pushing myself and it felt so good. I know that taking care of my body is the most important thing right now and I am SO excited to start my family that pushing myself to run is not worth the risk of hurting myself or the baby. I've got plenty more years to run. I just keep remembering that I CAN run again and this is not the end.

So I haven't blogged about my running adventures because there really haven't been any. I figured since today is the Mid Winter Classic and that's what got me going in the first place, it would be a fitting day to get back to the blogging world. I hope to post my thoughts, feelings and experiences about prenatal running/working out. This is a whole new adventure....I can't wait!:-)