What's next?

I did it.

Jen running

I'm not quite sure in what stage of running I was in when this picture was taken, but it looks hilarious to me. And thus, I share it with you. 

Before I recap the race... the day before I picked up my "bib"--the number you see attached to me. I had to cross the river and go to the Plaza to pick it up. I could have sent Vader. My running guru offered to pick it up for me. But I decided to put on my big girl pants and take my little girls and just pay for parking and do it myself. I hate driving in the "city", I hate parking there, and I had to be there a little too close to bus drop off time for SkyWalker. But I wanted to meet my friends there and really have the whole experience. And boy did I. Picking it up was wicked easy and quick. I should have left immediately. I put my bib in the bottom of the stroller with my free t-shirt and my free cookies. I didn't put it in my diaper bag because I was afraid of ripping it or bending it. These were special bibs this year with computer chips in them. So I just left it loose in the stroller. I walked around a bit, gabbed a bit, and enjoyed the time with my friends. I left with little time to spare to catch the bus. As I was going to the van I looked down and noticed the bib was NOT in the stroller. Everything else was, the shirt, the cookies, but not the one essential thing I needed! I immediately cried and panicked. I couldn't go back and look because I had to catch the bus. I checked the stroller and the diaper bag in case I had forgotten I put it in there. I drove away--going the wrong way and having to take the long way home, crying the entire time. I got home with 20 minutes to spare. I got the phone number for the race and got a recording. I called Vader sobbing and he said he would go down and look for it. I kept the girls in the car and drove to the mailbox to get SkyWalker off the bus. He asked what was wrong and I just cried to him and told him what happened. And he said "Did you look to see if there was a hole in the stroller?" and other helpful suggestions. 10 minutes later Vader called and he had my bib. It must have flown out of the stroller and someone picked it up and turned it in. I told him it was 1463 (it was not) and even though the bib he had in his hand had my name on it he called to make sure because the number was 1763 (I think?). So much for not stressing myself out before the race.

There were a million women running (around 3500) and we lined up around the 30 minute mark. They have you line up where you think you will finish. The group--minus our fearless leader who was way ahead of us--all lined up together and started out together. That was nice. The clock had already been running for over a minute when we crossed the starting line but because of the chip in the bib it registered when we crossed so our individual clocks started then--isn't technology grand? I started my Nike+ which didn't work. Argh. Once we started really running we were on our own. It was too hard to try to keep up with anybody else. I did manage to run most of the race with one of my friends and that was really REALLY nice. And then she ran on ahead. And then I peed my pants.

Yes, dear reader. You read that right. I PEED MY PANTS. I have 3 children and no bladder control when I sneeze, so why should running be different? I was a little shocked and then I might have had a tiny panic attack because I had a strange pain in my chest that I never had while running. So I walked and then got over it (it wasn't like it was streaming down my legs). I started running again and when I saw the finish line and the clock I RAN. I wanted to get there before 35 minutes and I could see 34. I finished the race running which is what I wanted to do. I didn't care that I had to walk. I ran when it mattered. I had no idea what the clock said when I did finish and my Nike+ didn't register a thing. But I knew I made it before 35 and I was happy with that because all my practice runs had taken me 36-37 minutes. And back when I started this it took me 45 minutes. When the results were finally posted I was pleasantly surprised to see I had done it in 33:18. The clock that I saw was started with the official start of the race before I even started moving. The 33:18 was adjusted to when I crossed the starting line. Had I not peed myself I think I could have done it closer to 30 minutes, but I was pretty happy with 33:18. 

So what's next? For me, I'm going to do Chewie's first year scrapbook that I should have done before her birthday last week. I have pictures to go through, books to read, and life to catch up on. I'm not planning any more races for the summer. I want to run for fun, without the stress of training. I'm planning on running outside on the weekend when Vader is home and then treadmill running during the week when I can fit it in. I'm going to have all 3 home pretty soon so I know some weeks will be harder than others. I'd like to run another race in the fall when it's not so hot. And I'm looking forward to running in next year's Freihofer's. But first I want to just go out and run for the sake of running. (And do my kegels.)

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