Running a race

I ran the St. Patrick's Day Dash today. This year it was a 3.7 mile course through the city. And when I say "ran" I mean "participated" - I ran some, but probably walked more. Hey, I am over 15 weeks pregnant, after all :).

The weather was almost as bad as it could be. Not quite, because it wasn't too windy, but it was snowing/slushing when we got there and that turned to heavy rain by the time our wave started. It was cooooooold and we were soaking wet. But despite that, it was still really fun. I've done this race before and it's a blast. People get all dressed up in crazy hats and costumes - very festive event.

The amazing thing is that my husband did it with me. That is something else because my husband does not run. I've tried to get him to run with me for ages, even just as a workout and he always professes to HATE running. He bases this off his memories of high school football workouts and the time he ran 5 miles around the track for some fundraiser thing. Yeah, running lines in football practice and running around a track for a million years are exactly like running in a cool St. Patrick's Day race. Sure.

He's mentioned things about running in the last couple of months and I had a feeling I might be getting to him. A few weeks ago we were talking about this race and I told him my goal was to have him do it with me next year - I could use it to get back into running shape after the baby and he could use it to get into running shape period. He said, hey, I'll do it this year! So I assumed he was serious and signed him up :).

After a lot of "what was I thinking?" talk this past week, we actually drove up there and went for it - horrible weather and all. I'm not in a position to run that distance anymore - my belly is big for 15 weeks and there's way too much pressure on my bladder (and I started the race needing to pee, which of course made it worse). And he hasn't run any distance since, well, those high school football practices. He has been working out regularly for quite some time now and has lost over 30lbs (woo hoo honey!), but he's not in running shape so he wasn't sure what to expect. We stuck together and ran for a while in the beginning and then walked most of the middle - most of the distance, really. We ran again at the end to finish strong. Through it all we had a good time chatting as we went, talking about things like running shoes, shin splints, our kids, our summer plans and how much fun it would be to do a race together if we were both in a position to run the whole thing.

The fact that the two of us pinned on race numbers together today is stunning. So many things have happened in the last few months that I never would have thought possible, but wanted so badly, and this was one of them. I love doing races and I love the idea of us doing them together sometimes - bringing the kids along when it works, having them join us when they're older. I love the idea of being that active family that looks forward to these kinds of events and is in the kind of shape to do them. For the first time, I can actually see the possibility of that idea being a reality for us. And that rocks.

My SIL came along and ran it too and she was a total rockstar. She ran the whole thing, hills and all, and made pretty good time too. She's never run that far before and was pretty nervous, but I think she learned something valuable about herself today - the same thing I learned when I started doing races. She learned what's possible, what she can accomplish if she pushes herself a little. That's a great lesson to learn and I was so thrilled to hear her say on the way home, "Gotta find out when the next one is!"

I'm so glad we went today, despite being wet and freezing. It was a cool moment for me and my husband and I'm still so amazed at how many of those we've been having lately.

Good times.