2.5 months past Ironman and my running has been little, and that’s not me sand bagging but it is me being honest with myself. I needed a ton of time to recover, atleast 1.5 months of doing nothing over 3 miles due to the knee issues I’d had left over from the lovely 140.6. I’d been tryingto slowly increase my mileage since then though. I’m on no plan right now, just trying to get some miles in and get the feel of running back. What may have prompeted this was a question from a friend about how long it took me to get my baby weight off, needless to say after I choked and laughed a little I informed her that three years later that has yet to happen. Insert determination to not only start getting some running in, since it is my favorite in the winter, and watching what I eat a little more.
I have to say the addition to our household, crazy weimaraner, has been quite the motivation to attempt at 4-5x a week of running. Whether the running be 3-4 miles or 8-10 miles I really just wanted to be consistent. So on November 17th I did my first 10 mile run post IM with 3 yr old and 2 dogs in tow. I guess I was seen by a few friends who found the madness of my normal life quite amusing crossing large intersections with two dogs wanting to go opposite directions. What can you do but laugh at yourself. The child was only in tow b/c he flipped a lid when he found out I was running without him. The run went ok, not great but not horrible and I was thrilled to atleast have the help from the dogs pushing the stroller.
No plans for the next week were made, I had quite the work week w/10-15 hour days in Florida Mon-Wed when Wednesday night I came across a local Half Marathon. I used to train at races quite frequently just b/c it was more fun than doing it on your own, so I noticed on pics from last year strollers were there and another one that had a dog in the pic and I was sold. My impromptu half marathon would be like normal, child and two dogs making it a party! I signed up for the IRecycle Half Marathon, got a text about 15 minutes before I was leaving for the race and a friend had been up for hours and said to bring Addison over there that there was no sense pushing him if I didn’t have to. SCORE!!!!! For those moms of you out there, a hilly half marathon and an option not to push your child is PRICELESS. Thank you Sarah Parker. My goal for the race never changed, just have fun and get the miles in. The dogs were fit, minus the one on an antiobiotic which will haunt me later, but I had no doubt fun would be had.
The gun went off and my primary concern was to stay out of everyones way and run to the side. The dogs managed well w/my truster border collie leading the way and directing Jax appropriately. The only problem is, my border collie DOES NOT know pace the first couple miles. It’s a constant repeat of Wrigley, slow down. What didn’t help is she likes to pick people off, every person in front of her is a goal to get in front of. This was not good for us b/c Jax the Weimaraner on the lovely antiobiotic has what I deemed the Athlete Runs FOUR TIMES during our race. I didn’t mind stopping b/c again I was in it to have fun. Around mile 10 some nice soul had put out a water bowl on the course so we stopped and enjoyed that. I’d been giving them my Nuun’s but I’m sure at mile 10 they’d taken any reason to stop. The course was so well marked, well manned w/officers, and had such great spectator support that it really made those dogs run fast. I swear every cowbell, cheer, and high five they though was meant for them. Once we approached the finish line good old Jax had taken the leaders seat, while poor Wrigley had worn her nails down to the quick and was a little behind him. Once I stopped and looked at the time I was truly amazed. I knew the dogs had pulled me at a much faster pace than I’d really wanted to go, but to see that if you took out the stops we averaged an 8:26 was outstanding. The dogs were given medals, and treated like the king and queen they were. They even received the usual Puppacino from Starbucks on the way home. I like to use races as training to remind myself to get out of my comfort zone, this time it wasn’t the race that did that it was the dogs. The dogs and I managed to place, however I have requested it be passed along to the next person as I truly see it as an unfair advantage and someone more deserving then me should get it.
Thank you to IRecycle for the great support and race, I encourage everyone to try this race next year. Trisports, Atlanta Bread Co @ Cherrydale, RSLED Group, and Powerbar you were all well represented and I can’t begin to count the number of pics taken out on the course of people who thought it was great the dogs were with me. Thank you for all you do!
