It's Official......

Before I get to the whole point of my post, which is the Colfax Marathon Relay Recap, I just wanted to say:  It's official, you guys were correct in saying that my belly is small for as pregnant as I am.

 The other day a co-worker came up to me and we had this conversation:

 "Hey, I heard you were pregnant!"

  Obviously, news travels fast around my office.

 "Yep, I'm in my 26th week. Only another week and I'll be hitting my third trimester."

 "Wow, I had no idea that you were even pregnant until Rob mentioned it the other day. I just thought you were getting a little chubby."

And that's what I was scared of.  I'm in that stage where you just can't quite tell that I am pregnant, but you can definitely tell that I've put on a little weight.  Like 17-18 pounds worth of who the hell knows what.  So to most people, I look like I've been hitting up the Cheetos and ice cream all winter (which I have, especially the Flaming Hot Cheetos, but that's besides the point).  How many other people are out there thinking that my low belly bulge is due to me not being able to put down the beer and nachos.

This weekend, I had the pleasure of running with 4 other people as part of a team for the Colfax Marathon Relay.    We decided that the pregnant runner (that's me in case you hadn't figured that out yet) would get the shortest leg, so I only had to run 4 miles.  I  am still putting in about 15-20 miles a week, with a 6 miler on the  weekends, so 4 miles sounded like a good time to me.

We had a group of 4 of us and needed one more person, so I conned my husband into joining the relay team and then decided that he would do the first relay leg, which meant he had to get up at the ass crack of dawn in order to be at the 6:00 am start (none of the rest of us wanted to get up that early).  Moral of the story, if I ever ask you to join my team, be ready to take the crap end of the stick.  Actually, he honestly didn't mind, he's an early riser anyway and enjoyed running in the cool morning air.

Anyway, he had the first leg, which meant that he handed off to me and I got to truckin' on my big 4 miles.  My leg started at Invesco field, home of the Denver Broncos, and the first mile was a climb out of the stadium and up to Sloan's lake.  I have the cardiovascular system of an 80 year old asthmatic smoker right now, so I felt like I was sucking wind on the hill and I decided to walk just a bit, which made me wonder if  people where thinking that I was a lazy turd because my leg had just started and I was already walking and panting up the hill.   I had on the tightest extra small shirt that I could find and I hope it accentuated my belly and people knew I was big and pregnant and not too lazy .  I mustered a little strength to push up and over the end of the hill and we finally made it to flatter ground around the lake.   I had already decided at the start of my run leg that mind over matter was the way to go on the need to pee/lack of bathroom problem, so I tried to focus on other things, such as goose poop.   There was goose poop in certain areas on the sidewalk and the focus it took concentrating on avoiding the droppings took my mind off my aching bladder. .

There were so many marathoners out on the course and it made me long to be in their race shoes.  I love the feeling of race day, when all of your training and hard work comes together to accomplish a goal.   Someday.  I'll be back out there someday, but right now, I was just happy to be doing what I love to do.

To make a long story short, because we all hate long race reports: I saw the 4 hour pace group pass me, leeched onto the back end of them, and I finished.   AND without peeing my pants.

After my leg, I took a bus back down to the finish and to wait for the rest of my team to finish up their legs of the 26.2 miles.

Here's a pic of  my husband and me.  This was his first running race!

Here's my team, which was suitably named Hack Job.  We consisted of:  two newbie runners who were doing their first race, a girl with a bum injured knee, and a pregnant runner.   Not the fastest team in the world, but being the fastest wasn't the goal for us, we just wanted to enjoy the experience and have a great time.  We finished up with a 4:13 marathon chip time. 

One of the newbie runners is stoked to start training for his first half marathon this fall and while I had high hopes that my husband would be joining me in more races, I think he is content to be a biker and occasional runner.  

Plus, he will be watching the baby next year while I run my non-pregnant butt off. 

This weekend was also prom for my daughter Madison.  I must say brag a little and say that she looked absolutely gorgeous, so very grown up.  I can not believe she will be a senior next year, where has the time gone?    

Next up is the Denver Color Run on May 26th.  

Rock The Parkway Race Recap

Yes, I have fallen off the blog wagon AGAIN. Work knocked me off and I just couldn't seem to keep up or get back on. It's hard to climb back on a wagon while 6 months pregnant.

I'm in my 23rd week or 6th month of pregnancy and I'm feeling pretty good albeit still gassy, forgetful and about 15 pounds heavier. Some may say it's 15 pounds of sassy and I think they are right. I don't hold anything back these days, it's as though someone has given me a dose of truth serum.

A couple of weeks back, I traveled to Kansas City, Missouri to see my family and run a little 5K race called Rock the Parkway.  I was originally supposed to run the half marathon with my sister, but thank God I missed the deadline, because my running is still sporadic at best these days.  Some weeks I run as much as 20-25 miles per week, others weeks, I can barely eek out 10 miles.  It pretty much depends on where Beavis (no the child still has no name...just Beavis) is laying.  If he's down low, he pushes on my scar tissue from my prior C-section and that makes running pretty painful, but if he's up high....game on.  So my sister ran the half, and I ran the 5K with my dad, which was pretty special because it was my Dad's very first 5K and his very first race!

Race morning, we got the brilliant idea to wear matching, bright ass orange t-shirts.  This was to be a really good decision because later on in the race/after the race, we could all spot each other from a mile away.

I had one goal in this race-make it to the porta potty at the mile and a half mark.  Ask any pregnant runner and she'll tell ya that you have to pee every 5-10 minutes, so making it to a mile and a half mark was a good goal..  Actually it was either that or pee my pants because I really had no other choice.  I had no time goals for the race.  I mean why?  I was 20 weeks pregnant and 13 pounds heavier, it's not exactly like I train for speed these days, I pretty much train as to not have triple chins.  So the plan was to just run at a comfortable pace.

Well, I made my potty goal and finished with a chip time of 29:31, which is a 9:31 pace and even though I was slower than usual, I still came in 37 out of 260 in my age group.  In fact, the top 5 women in my age groups times only ranged between 22 and 25 minutes.  Hmmm....may have to come back next year less pregnant.  

Here I am crossing the finish line with a lovely heel strike made possible by a downhill finish. 

After I finished, I found my brother-in-law Wick and we started to look for my dad, which really wasn't hard hence the bright ass t-shirt.   We found him walking about 500 yards out from the finish line.  I ran out to give him a little encouragement and to get him to run it in to the finish.  My dad is not a runner, but he signed up and started to train for the race so that he could hang out with his daughters on race day.  He was so excited about this race and so very nervous that it would take him at least an hour to finish.  

You want to see something inspirational, you watch your 58 year old, non-running father finish his very first race well under his goal time.  His chip time was 44 minutes and the smile on his face when I told him his time was priceless.   I am so very proud of him and I have a feeling that this won't be his last race because he was already talking about training for another one.  :)

My dad and I after our 5K.  His shirt says WTF? on the front and "Where's the finish" on the back.  I'm glad he has a sense of humor.

My dad, brother-in-law, and I hung out at the post race after party and waited for my sister to finish her half.  I must say that I was extremely impressed by the Rock the Parkway race.  They had a great expo, well organized race, awesome after party including a band, and ample food/drinks for the racers.

Pretty soon, my sister texted me and said she was near the finish.  She crossed the finish line with a 17 MINUTE HALF MARATHON PR!!!!    I am so proud of her accomplishment!   This is only her second half marathon and I think that she will keep on surprising herself with future PRs. 

I had such a great weekend and it's always nice when it includes running AND your family.   Hanging out at the race, I realized how much I want my son to grow up around this sort of atmosphere.  I stopped racing after my daughter was born, so she was never around this type of culture.  In my wise, old advanced age, I now realize that you can be a mother and a runner and I would love for him to hang out around these types of events.  You just can't help but come away from them with a good feelings from being around such positive, active people.  And maybe, just maybe, he'll  be just a little bit inspired to be a runner (or biker or triathlete) one day.  

Next up:  Colfax Marathon Relay May 20th

Snips & Snails & Puppy Dogs Tails.......

Apparently that's what my little boy is made of.  I'm not sure what a snip is, but snails are gross.

Yep, we are having a boy! Look how cute he is; I can't wait to meet the little person who has been kicking and bouncing on my bladder for the last several weeks.  I think he's going to be a runner too, his little legs were going non stop during my ultrasound last Friday.  I would be running in there too, there's not much else to do, well he could swim, but if he's like his mother, he doesn't like to swim.

Today I am 18 weeks and 5 days or in my 19th week of pregnancy and that means I am in my 5th month.  Things are going well and I am feeling much better now that the ingestion has subsided a little, in fact, I feel pretty normal, with the exception of the pregnancy forgetfulness.  I always thought that the pregnancy brain or forgetfulness was just a myth until it started happening to me.

I have fallen off the stupid tree and have hit every single branch.

Seriously, I forget everything.  The other day, I was looking for my pink running glasses and couldn't find them anywhere. I finally gave up and went into the bathroom (I can only go so long without pee breaks), I looked in the mirror and there they were, perched on top of my visor where I normally put them.  The stupid thing was that they weren't the only pair of sunglasses up there.  I had not one, but two pairs sitting on top of my visor.  At least I am prepared for the Colorado sunshine.  Now, if I could just figure out why I thought I needed to pack two pairs of left shoes to go to the gym, instead of a right and a left, I will be all set.

Running is getting harder for me.  I am carrying the little guy pretty low and bio mechanically, running is getting a little painful because I am having to run/walk so slow.  I am going to keep at it as long as I possibly can, but it is definitely a struggle with the pain and all of the peeing.  Trying to map out my runs around toilets is just hard, which is why I love trail running so much right now.  You can pee anywhere!!!  I keep hoping he moves up a little and I start to carry a little higher.   I am still getting in about 6 to 6 1/2 hours of swim, bike, run, and strength work in however, and I feel that this is a major success.

Last week, we took a mini vacation and stayed in a cabin in the mountains right outside of Leadville, CO, so I am way behind on reading blogs since I don't blog while on vacation, but I will catch up.

I did manage to take a few pics:

The first two are on the patio of our cabin with a view of the mountains in the back and the last one is of me right after a 6 mile trail run with my favorite trail running parter.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Cranky Pants

On Sunday, yours truly stuffed her pregnant self into some spandex and went for a bike ride. I actually had to retire my x-small women's bike shorts and bum a pair of my husbands, but it was a gorgeous, sunny, 70 degree day and a bike ride was in order no matter whose shorts I was wearing.

The husband, Beavis, and I got in a short 20 mile ride and I am happy to say that the hills didn't kill me and I only had to stop and pee twice.  That is one pee for every 10 miles; score one for the pregnant woman.  I had to take the ride a little slower than usual and had to yell at my husband to "Slow down!!" a couple of times, but overall, I felt good on the bike.    

I finished my 15th week on Friday, so I today I am 15 weeks and 4 days pregnant or as I like to say, I am starting my 16th week.   My energy level is better in the second trimester and I no longer deal with morning sickness and dizziness, but different symptoms have now taken hold.  I burp more than a twelve year old boy due to constant indigestion,  constipation is making me angry, and speaking of angry, I can go from happy to "I'm going to light your ass on fire" mad in an instant.  My co-workers call me feisty, but I know they are just being nice.  I realize that I'm just a cranky, old hormonal pregnant woman who burps too much and hasn't taken a crap in three days.

Saturday, I wanted to do my long run of 6-7 miles; however, another pregnancy symptom put a crimp in my plans.  In the second trimester a lot of women will experience what is called round ligament pain.  The round ligaments hold your uterus in suspension and as the uterus grows, it stretches these ligaments, which in turn pulls and tugs on nearby nerve fibers causing pain.  This pain is totally normal and can vary in intensity from a dull ache to sharp pains.  I remember this from my first pregnancy and I was experiencing it again.  Saturday was another gorgeous day out, but I knew that the round ligament pain combined with the fact that I hadn't crapped in three days, would make for a very uncomfortable run, so I opted to swim instead.

Skipping out on a long run on a beautiful day and having to go to the pool made me really crabby.   Borderline bitchy.

I got crabbier as I drove to the pool and by the time I got to the gym, I am sure my face was frozen in a snarl.   I checked in and headed to the pool, sure that I would hear over the intercom a warning for all people in the pool.  "Warning to swimmers.  Bitchy, pregnant woman headed your way."  Actually that would have been nice, it might have cleared some people out, every lane was full, so I had to wait.

I finally got a lane and once I started swimming, my cranky attitude started to dissipate. I was using my new Zoomers swim fins and my ligament pain was actually subsiding, so my mood was definitely improving.  That is until I saw gross sauna man jump into my lane.  My gym has a sauna and a steam room located right next to the lane pool and people will go sweat themselves silly in there and then come out and jump right into the lane pool to cool off.  Never mind that there is a shower located less than 2 feet away from the pool/saunas.  Normally, I can tolerate these people, it's gross, but I let it slide, I figure chlorine will take care of their gross sweat, but today it just took me over the edge, especially since it was MY lane he was in.

I had originally planned to do 2,000 yards, but I was starting to get cranky again, so I grabbed a kick board to cool down and end my swim at 1,500.  Gross sauna man saw me barreling his way with a glint in my eyes, so he quickly dodged under the rope to the other lane.   Every single lane was full of swimmers and I watched him dodging them back and forth.  When I got to the other side of my lane, the swimmer in the lane he was in, was unknowingly headed right for him, so he swam back into my lane.  Well, I didn't stop, I headed straight for him and kicked him.

I know.  I am going to hell for that kick.  Karma will for sure come back to bite me on this one.  I'm sure he'll probably be the anesthesiologist when I go into labor in August, but I bet he won't jump into my swim lane again until then.

Tara 15 weeks 4 days or starting the 16th week.  Smiling.  Today is going to be a good day.  

Meet Beavis

The other day I caught my husband staring at our 12 week ultrasound pictures. My first thought was: "Awwww, that's so sweet, he's looking at his little baby".

And then he opened his mouth...

"Doesn't really look like a baby yet does it?"

"Well, no, the shots taken from the front definitely look like a little alien because the head is still so big" I replied

"I was thinking that it looked more along the lines of Beavis (from the show Beavis and Butthead)". He then proceeded to throw his hands in the air and proclaim: "I am Cornholio and I need TP for my bunghole!".

I didn't know whether to be more scared that he still remembered the lines from Beavis and Butthead or the fact that he was comparing our baby to Beavis. I mean, he was right. The baby has a big head and his hands are waving in the air. If you look at it just right, it does kind of look like Beavis from Beavis and Butthead.

So we are now calling our unborn child Beavis. We will be awesome parents.


I was looking extra pregnant this morning, so I took some belly shots for you. Here I am just starting my 15th week of pregnancy. I still look fairly slender, but my waist has definitely thickened up quite a bit and I have retired a lot of my jeans and work pants and am now resigned to my former fat pants.



Front View- 15 weeks.



Beavis and I are still running.  We usually take the the dog with us; I figure her old butt could use the exercise just as much as my pregnant butt does.  Plus how can you really resist this face.

Running has been a lot easier for me over the last week; it seems my heart has finally accepted the 40% extra blood volume and has allowed me to resume running (fairly) normally.  I know this won't last, pretty soon I'll be as big as a semi truck, but for now, I will enjoy it.

Now if someone could just convince my bladder to resume normal function.  The other day the dog and I had 6 pee and 2 poop breaks between the two of us on our 4 mile run.  The poop breaks weren't mine, but I was a little envious.  Constipation......another joy of pregnancy.  


Anyway, my heart seems to have accepted its new workload, which is nice; however, I am still running slow,  I figure I am not training for anything, so why push it?  I first noticed the effects of the blood volume increase around week 7 or 8 and it literally felt like I was running under water, I had no breathing capacity what so ever.  My pace didn't match up with my effort and my heart rate would be through the roof.  I would have to take constant walk breaks to bring my HR down to normal even though my pace and effort were extremely easy.

I honestly never really noticed a difference in my biking.  The leg strength is still there and I hope to keep it that way.  Of course I have been doing most of my biking on the trainer, which definitely helps since I don't have to deal with the lung capacity needed to ride the Colorado hills.  Gasp...gasp.

As for swimming, well....let's just say I never thought that I could actually get any slower then I already was, but of course I did.  Mainly because I would have to breathe every stroke and it would seem as though I would be gasping for air if I tried to swim "fast", so I would just take it slow with lots of rest breaks.   I have noticed a change in my swimming over the last week or so, definitely a little easier.

So that's it.  Still hanging in there with my workouts and fitness routine.  Now that I am in my second trimester, I have a little more energy, so I have been putting in at least 6 hours a week doing swim, bike, run, and strength and trying to stay on a consistent schedule.

My nutrition however, is a different story.  When you wake up at 2:00 in the morning craving baloney sandwiches with mayonnaise and chips crunched on top, you know you are in trouble.   I think it has been 25 years since I've eaten a baloney sandwich, but this is the sort of nonsense I am dealing with.

Off to devour some candy bars.....