Hello out there! Anyone still checking in on my little blog?
I know I have been quiet this year, both here and on Instagram, but I am hoping to get back into posting some regular updates as the year progresses – If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably realized that I have not been running so much this year, because I have been pregnant!
When I first found out that I was pregnant I had big goals – I was going to run the Disney World marathon in January! I was registered for the NYC Half in March, I certainly could keep running until then, right? Well, spoiler alert: I did not run either of those races. While my OB said I could keep running, a full marathon was deemed “too much” given my specific medical history, and by March my mileage was not where it needed to be to complete a half- but I did have fun heading into Manhattan to cheer on Mike and Carson as they ran the NYC half! It was fun to be on the other side of things.
I know that plenty of women run well into their pregnancy, but that just wasn’t how things shaped up for me. I still got some miles in during the first trimester (when I wasn’t sleeping as many hours as I could sneak in), but at the start of the second trimester I wound up with Covid and the flu at the same time, and it took a toll on me. The biggest impact of this combo was my asthma flaring up, which is something that thankfully does not happen too often, but when it does it usually takes about a month before I am breathing easy again. Between recovering from the covid/flu combo and being pregnant, it took a little longer than that before I had my breathing back under control – which meant I took about a month off from running, since I was getting lightheaded just walking around. It was beyond frustrating to go from being able to run regularly to hardly being able to walk around the house.
When I headed out for that first run back, I was so excited! I laced up, put on some of my favorite brooks gear, and headed outside hoping to just run a mile or two…. But my body had different plans – I struggled to control my breathing, and wound up with the most intense nosebleed, which is not something that I had dealt with while running before.
After that experience I was nervous to get out and run again. Since then, I have stuck to walks and the occasional swim, when the air quality allows it.
As I see my friends starting to train for fall marathons, I find myself daydreaming about lacing up again and getting excited that in a few months I’ll be able to lace up for a run again. That is one of the great things about running – it will always be there to welcome you back.
I ran my first marathon in January of 2017, and had hoped I would be able to run a marathon each year after that. But here we are in July, I am 8 months pregnant, and I have run zero marathons this year. It is seeming like odds are I am not going to hit that goal in 2023, even if I am technically still registered for the NYC marathon (which I know, realistically, I am not going to be able to run, I just haven’t been able to bring myself to defer just yet).
So I will be here for the next few months, watching from the sidelines and cheering on my friends. I have a pile of running shoes that are just waiting to get some miles on them, that I can’t wait to put on. So, I hope you will stick around and I make my way back to feeling like a runner again – because I am so excited for that journey ahead!
