Monte Sano 5K 2017 and 2018

Last I wrote, I was pregnant with my 4th baby.  So much has happened since then!  First off, I gave birth to my little one in August of 2017--a bouncing baby boy weighing in at 9 lbs.!  He was born just 3 days before my 40th birthday.  I couldn't imagine a better early birthday present.  He is absolutely wonderful in every way!  He completes our family, and we now have a 12-year-old, 11-year-old, 4-year-old, and a 1-year-old.  Life is so busy but very fun.

A Little About the Birth

I so enjoyed the process of researching and then successfully completing my second epidural-free birth, but his was an induction (recommended due to my age), so it came with pitocin and having my water broken.  Using the Bradley Method and some birth mantras worked very well for me; in fact, the nurse remarked at one point that it looked like I was simply sleeping.  Let me just say this: if we can and do endure everything (painful and otherwise) that a marathon involves, why be afraid of the process of birth?  It's just trusting our training and our bodies to get us there, same as we do on race-day.  I loved getting to experience it again and encourage any other moms-to-be to know this: You can do it.

Monte Sano 5K 2017

For a fun challenge, I decided to race the Monte Sano 5K on September 2, 2017, 2.5 weeks after having the baby.  I had done a few runs since having him, and I knew I could complete the 5K distance.  Well, what I didn't know is that I would actually do something really surprising to me--I won my first Master's race!  Since I turned 40 on August 20, I was officially a Master's runner (and I'm guessing that not too many of them are also new moms!).  My time was 24:10.  In the pictures below, I'm wearing Rick's large singlet, which was still the only size that fit me.  

My big kids and me.  I have on the carrier for the baby, but Rick is holding him while I got my award.

Monte Sano 5K 2018

So here we are again, one year later.  I haven't been doing any speedwork, just a daily 4.5 mile run with the double stroller (with the 4-year-old and now 1-year-old in it) and a weekly 10-mile long run.  In this year's 5K, I didn't win Master's and my time was only about a minute better than last year's (23:06 vs. 24:10 last year).  This is what running in my forties is going to be.  If I want to get faster I will have to work at it.  And harder than I worked at it in my twenties and thirties.  I've been getting somewhere around 22:30-23:00 in several 5Ks this year, so I know that this is my starting point.  I hope to see that time improve, but I'm okay with it for now.  Funny thing is that the winner of the Master's race is a really nice 59-year-old woman.  Yes, 19 years older than me.  And she has beaten me in every race I've done against her.  She has really inspired me!  No pictures from today (no race photographer, as far as I know).

Upcoming Entries

I'd like to do an entry about the marathon I ran last December (first time running a marathon with a 3.5-month-old) and one about the series of 5Ks that I ran this past Spring (fun races for a great cause).  Stay tuned (if there are still any readers out there!).