I am the trifecta

Ever since I wrote my post about your worst race nightmares, I think about it when I'm at races and laugh a little. On Saturday I had the experience of being the trifecta of what you don't want to pass you at a race: pregnant, pushing a stroller and running with a dog. At least I don't really look pregnant (unless you know me and like to look me up and down), so people didn't have to know the full extent of their shame. Every year I like to run this local race that raises money for the hospice and it's a great time. Everyone comes out for it (1,500 people is a HUGE race for this area) and the post-race food and festivities are awesome.

I've done 4 races since finding out that I'm pregnant and in general haven't loved the experience because I hate getting passed and I hate not being able to go all out. To combat that, I decided to make it easier to cut myself some slack on my finish time by bringing the kid and the dog to the race. Initially I was just going to bring the kid because then my husband would have the morning to do grad school stuff, but at the last minute I decided to shove the dog in the front seat (the stroller takes up the whole back area) and bring her too since it was a really short drive.

That dude behind me tried to pass me, but guess who is more used to running with a stroller?

I learned a few things from my first experience of pushing the stroller or a race:

Lining up at the back of the pack is ridiculous. I tried to get behind the 5K runners group, but before the labeled "5K Walkers" sign, but it's almost impossible to pass people with a stroller so it's just frustrating to be boxed in and stuck for the first half mile.

It's really hard to not bump people with the stroller. I only had this problem at the beginning, but people just don't look down as they run and I had more than one person run into the front wheel of my stroller when they were crossing in front of me. I only had one chick look back and bitch about me about it, but I informed her that I was running a straight line and she ran into me, and that combined with my stink eye seemed to make her decided to just drop it.

Peanut is a race bitch. If someone slowed down in front of us, she would poke the back of their knees with her wet nose until they moved over. Peanut has a need for speed and an open road in front of her. She also loves passing other dogs.

I can run faster with the stroller than I thought. I don't normally run with my Garmin for my weekday stroller runs because it's annoying, so I just look at the clock when I leave and when I get back. I assumed that I run slowly with it because it takes forever to run four freaking miles with all the stops for snacks and assorted walk breaks. Faith was so wowed by the race environment that she didn't make one peep for the 3.1 miles and I only had to walk one hill (to keep my heart rate at a reasonable level). Before I left to go to the race, I joked to my husband that if I got a 30+ minute 5K that my pride might actually bleed, but that's really what I thought would happen.

I ended up finishing with a time of 26:57 (chip time) which is around an 8:38 average pace. I was lucky that the race took place on a closed road so I was able to run along side most of the crowds after about half a mile, otherwise this time would have been slower just because I was stuck and couldn't pass people without mauling their ankles with a stroller wheel. Peanut was the first dog to cross the finish line, so that takes some of the sting out of being 10th in my age group. I normally run the 10K at this event, but running the 5K has some perks, like being first in line for this:

Mango ice is amazing after a long grueling 3 mile run

During the race, a guy pushing a stroller blew past me and it turned out we had a mutual friend so our kids showed off some good sportsmanship post-race.

Your daddy only won because you're so much smaller and lighter than me.

After enough of the racers had finished, I dashed home and dropped off Peanut and got Faith to her swim lesson in just the nick of time. We got home again around lunch time and Faith was ready to inhale some serious lunch and pass out for 3 hours. Once she woke up, we walked over to a neighbor's house for Faith's first kiddie birthday party. My neighbor has twins who were turning 4 and the party had a circus theme with lots of games and one of those bouncy house things. Faith had a great time, except when I tried to let her get her face painted. Apparently that isn't on her list of things she'll allow to happen. She had to walk around the rest of the night with just a pink blob on her cheek, but it didn't bother her.

By the time we got home from the party, I was just toast and felt like going to bed when Faith did at 7pm but then we realized that a season of True Blood that we missed is on HBO On Demand, so that kept me up. We just got HBO and it has been worth every penny so far.

I woke up early today, but didn't feel like running before breakfast, so I made pancakes (from scratch because mixes don't come out as fluffy) and hung out with Faith and Peanut while my husband did yet more grad school work. Finally I got enough motivation to head out the door, but by 9:30am it was already hot and my 4 mile run was pretty miserable and full of walking breaks. Tomorrow is predicted to be almost 90 degrees here, so that's why I planned to take it as a rest day from running. It's just too hard to stay cool enough (for safe pregnant exercise purposes) when it's that warm outside. That's one of the reasons that I'm planning on benching myself from outdoor running this summer.

Whatever Mommy, you're a wimp. Bet you can't put a sticker on your eye like me.

What show on TV will make you stay up even if you're exhausted? My current favorite is obviously Game of Thrones, but I love True Blood too.