Running while pregnant....Schlepping while pregnant.

"Don't poop the baby out." My loving husband's words of wisdom/support for me as I embarked on breaking my 3 month hiatus and began my first trek into running while pregnant.  Just a few days shy of being 23? 24? weeks or 5 months, how do you say...  it sucked.

3.3 miles total, I think I ran continuously for about a maximum of 1.2 miles during all of that and it was a mix of mostly running, but also walking.  I was NOT about to run up my big hill that's on my trail and I knew that now, of all times, is not the time to get self competitive and push myself.  I actually did the right thing ( how mature of me?!?!) and took it easy.  It was awful though, I am still beating myself up mentally, but I really had zero expectations (only silent deep expectations that I would miraculously get back out there like I hadn't taken any time off and I wasn't carrying an extra 15 pounds of weight - plus whatever I've gained with the baby - and I would rock it out and complete my usual 4.25 miles at a pace of under 10 minutes).  No.  Hell no.  3.3 miles and it took me 50 minutes total.  How painful.  I have a great excuse and I am O.K. with that.

I wouldn't actually call it running, but since my runkeeper doesn't have an activity titled "Walking with a spring in your step" or "running/falling over simultaneously and continuously" I would classify it as "schlepping" but since NONE of those descriptions are in runkeeper, I went with running.  My only congratulations from my application was "yay, you've beat last weeks distance AND time!"  What a GENIUS my app is, I haven't run in three months and that's all it can think to give me as positive reinforcement to keep me going.  Lame sauce.

And as a side note to describe running while this far pregnant, I had expected it to be a lot like running with a block of those 1 pound cheese (like Monterey Jack or Colby Jack) in my lower abdomen and have it shook about as I felt it "ping" much like the game "Pong" off my vital organs just like a pinball machine.  No, it was surprisingly comfortable.  I followed the first cardinal rule of running, especially while pregnant, to empty my bladder before I begun my trip, only 2 miles in to feel like if I didn't chase down a random porcelain statue immediately I was going to break my bladder right there on my trail.  I figured the quickest way to get to a toilet was to run home, so that's when my minute per mile pace improved and I ran the most and the fastest.  It's amazing how motivation (in whatever form it comes in) really works.

Here's a photo of me and Baby Version 2.0 after our first (and hopefully, really) not last running expedition.  AND, you're also looking at three sports bras.  Those babies weren't goin' nowhere!