A Reflection on my Running Journey

I was reminded yesterday that it has been just over three years since I officially started my running journey.

For years and years I had wanted to start running but just never fully committed. I picked up running for a short time when I was in college but never fully committed and was over it after a few weeks. It wasn’t until the Spring of 2011 that I bought myself some real running shoes and committed to the Couch to 5k (C25k) program.

Soon after starting the C25k program Neil (who also started it) and I signed up for our very first 5k. We chose to pick a more picturesque 5k in Portland Maine for our first 5k experience. We both signed up for the Old Port 5k (there is also a half marathon) and we recruited my parents to come cheer us on.

While I was by no means the fastest runner (or the slowest) I completed the race and felt such a rush at the end that I wanted to sign up for all the races. After this initial race I kept up with my running until I got pregnant with Edith in the Winter of 2011. I actually figured out I was pregnant after having the worst run of my entire life. I felt terrible, was super slow and just felt off so I went home and took a pregnancy test and at 4 weeks along I found out I was pregnant.

After that extreme morning sickness  hit and combine that with frigidly cold, windy and snow conditions l ended up choosing the couch over my running shoes.  While I started to feel better around 18 weeks along I just wasn’t prepared to start back running after taking 13 weeks off and instead chose yoga, walks and strength training over running. In the end I did no running at all during my pregnancy (besides the very early weeks).

Once Edith arrived I was thrilled to know that getting back to running was just around the corner…or so I thought. I was convinced that since I had been active during my pregnancy, had no issues during my pregnancy and had an amazing birth experience that I would heal quickly and be back to running at the 6 week postpartum mark. Well the healing process took far longer than I had initial thought, probably closer to 10 weeks before I started to feel “normal”. I started back running and was pretty consistently until Neil got a job in Portland Oregon and we found out we had three weeks to pack up and move.

However when I found out we were moving I immediately looked into races in the area and found a quarter marathon in May to sign up for. As soon as we arrived to PDX in January 2013 I started my training schedule and was fully committed to running. That May or rather last May I ran my first postpartum race and it was exhilarating and then I seemed to just crash. I had gone from little to no running to running four days per week and after the race I felt burned out.

The entire summer I ran around 1-2 times per week and it wasn’t until the Fall that I started up running around 2-3x per week. I needed a break, time to recharge and have that desire to run again. Once that desire to run started again I was ready to sign up for another race until oops I found myself pregnant again.  I ran during the early weeks of this pregnancy as well but just like with Edith I experienced intense morning sickness, I’d say even worse this time around and I decided once again to stop running. Just like my pregnancy with Edith I ended up not returning to running after taking 10 weeks off.

Here we are now at 39w1d pregnant and I know that running is in my near future again. This time around I know that healing may take longer and that I need to let myself heal and not rush back into running until my body feels good. My small goal is to start back running in late September/early October. Once of the benefits of living in the PNW is that we have mild winters and I don’t mind running in the rain so I will be able to keep up with running through the winter.

I actually won a race entry via a twitter chat to the same race I ran in May of 2013 and was able to defer the entry to next years race and plan to possibly train for the half this time around (I’ll decide once I see how running goes). I am thrilled to get back to running and knowing that there will be no more pregnancies after this one so I can really get back to making running a big part of my life.

In preparation for running yesterday my husband treated me to two new running tops and some gloves for this winter. It feels so good to know that I have some cute, comfortable and new running gear to get me back into the groove.

Share your running story in the comments! 

For that mamas out there what was your experience with running before, during and after pregnancy?