Crew support for a 5K

This weekend I ran my 5th race as a pregnant runner and my second race with the stroller and the dog. It was the dog's 10th race, so she is practically a professional at this point, but Faith is less seasoned.

Somehow got a number that ended in "15" for my 15 week pregnant race

You woke me up early for THIS? Lame. 

This was a pretty big 5K for this area (over 200 people) and I knew quite a few people in the crowd. I lucked out that one of my running club friends was there to lead the kid's "Fun Run" one mile race, but wasn't registered for the 5K and he volunteered to push Faith down the course so I could avoid starting with the stroller. Hands down, the hardest part of racing with a stroller is the start and this made my race so much easier. Peanut is used to the race experience and I was able to start toward the front (not all the way at the back like I would have done with the stroller) and since this was a manually timed race, I'm sure that saved me at least 2 minutes.

It was easy to just slow down a little and get the stroller in a pass off and then I just concentrated on trying to run an easy pace and not "race" anyone. It's really hard to do that in a race environment, especially when I can tell that people are actively trying to pass me, probably because they think they should be faster than a dog and stroller (and they're probably right).

Speak for yourself Mommy, I'm stretched out and ready to beat some people.

Faith decided to throw a tantrum around mile 2, which is always a fun situation in a crowd. I could hear her start (I didn't have music) and then I saw the trademark back arch of anger and I knew I had only one choice: bust out the emergency fun size Kit Kat bars. For everyday runs I try to keep her snacks reasonably nutritionally sound (for the most part) but when we run with others, I always stash a few tantrum-busting Kit Kats. Luckily, I am highly trained in unwrapping snacks while holding a dog leash and pushing a stroller and managed to diffuse the situation and she was reasonably happy for the rest of the race.

I finished in 26:13 (Garmin time, they still haven't posted official times) which is faster than my 5K last month which is surprising to me because I fully expected to be slower (being more pregnant for this one and all). Unlike all my non-pregnant 5Ks, I called it a day after the race and didn't run further. My goal for the morning was to give my husband a quiet house to get grad school work done, so after the 5K I took Faith and Peanut to the "Animal Fair" at our local fairgrounds. It's put on by the humane society and everything is geared for dogs. They even had "bobbing for hotdogs" and Peanut conquered her fear of getting her face wet:

Didn't Limp Bizkit sing about hot dog flavored water?

They had pony rides like the last fair we attended (but a different pony) and I coughed up 5 bucks for Faith to get two circles on a pony. Again, she loved it so much and kept saying "PONY! PONY! PONY!". I would have had to pay an extra 5 bucks to take a picture (seriously) so just use your imagination.

I did get a cute picture of Faith meeting the dog mascot for the fair and she was convinced that he was Wags from the Wiggles.

WAGS! I'm your biggest fan!

By the time we got back home at 11:30 (after leaving at 7am), I needed a nap just as much as the kid. There is something really exhausting about being in the sun for hours, even if most of it is just standing and walking!

If that wasn't enough excitement for the dog for the weekend, then she got to come for a group run this morning. I met up early with a couple other mom friends for an easy 6.75 mile run. I felt a little guilty that I had to ask for 2 walk breaks, but I keep telling myself that I never mind doing that for someone else so I shouldn't hesitate to ask if I need it. It was a beautiful morning for a run and a great way to start Mother's Day.

My mom and brother came over for lunch, so I wanted to pick up brunch stuff from Panera (because I'm too lazy to cook unless it's for a craving). Faith seemed like she needed to get out of the house, so I brought her with me and then I decided to bring the dog too. There was a free doggie play date at Peanut's kennel at 9am and the timing worked out perfectly to stop by for about 25 minutes and let Peanut do this:

Tag! You're it!

We couldn't stay for long because I didn't feel super comfortable having Faith in there with the dogs (Peanut gets crazy and would probably knock her down) and there is only so long that she'll tolerate this:

This playground sucks Mommy. 

Even though it was only 9:30am when we got to Panera, I decided to let Faith have one of those big sugar cookies they have, mostly because I decided that Mother's Day means we can share a cookie before 10am. It had lemon frosting (yuck!) so Faith ended up eating most of it, but then I hogged most of her chocolate milk. On side note, it takes the people at Panera a long ass time to slice a dozen bagels. Faith probably thinks Mother's Day is all about her since she got a huge cookie and then my mom brought her two new books. It's ok because I'm pretty sure that toddlers think that everything is all about them (and they are right most of the time). Also, the dog might think Mother's Day is all about her too since I'm sure that she just had the weekend of her dreams.



Do you think having someone push the stroller out a quarter mile for me in a race counts as cheating? It kinda felt like cheating, but it's not like I won a prize so I guess I can live with it.