A Mother's Day Run

I've been staring at the sign for the Folsom Run with Nature for a few months now as I drive to work.  When I found out I actually had the day off a few weeks ago I raced home and asked Jim if he wanted to do it.  Surprisingly he said yes right out the gate.  No prodding necessary.  So it was decided, we were going to kick off Mother's Day Weekend with a little 5K as a family.

So this morning we got up, lathered on the sunscreen, put Baby J in the jogging stroller and walked up to the starting line.  That's the nice thing about living in Folsom, it was a quick mile walk up to the start and we didn't have to worry about battling for parking.  Plus it was a nice warm up.

We did have to make a quick detour to the bike shop on our way up to put air in the jogging stroller tires.  They were closed but thankfully they have an air hose outside.

We made it to the start with a few minutes to spare.  When the "gun" went off we were on our way.  We were at the back of the pack because of the stroller and that was a little hard for me.  My original plan was just to do a leisurely, non competitive walk with a little jogging here and there if I felt like it.  Well that plan went right on the window the minute I crossed the starting line.  I discovered the racing bug never really leaves a person once you've been bitten.  My competitive nature came out it full force.  As soon as I had enough room I started running.  And I kept running.  In fact I ran almost the whole race.  I had set a goal of finishing in 45 minutes so I kept looking at me GPS to see if I was on pace.

When I was .84 miles into the race the lead runner passed by on the other side on his way up to the finish.  I have to admit that momentarily set me back but I persevered.  It was a kick in the chops though to think this guy was almost done and I had barely even started.  Oh well.

Along the course I ran into some friends from work and our neighbor.  That was pretty neat to see people I knew.  In the end we finished in 40 minutes.  Five minutes faster than my goal.  Now I know that sounds like a long time, and it is when you look at my past race times, but I was so thrilled.  That was a big deal for me.  It was the first time I have raced since the Boston Marathon in April of 2010, it was the first time racing with a jogging stroller and it was hella hot out!!

Overall racing with a stroller wasn't too bad.  I did find it frustrating when I couldn't pass slower runners or walkers with the ease of running with nothing.  There were a few times I had to go off on the shoulder of the trail to pass.  Baby J seemed to like it though.  He spent the last mile or so babbling so it was like having my own personal cheerleader along the way.

I think Jim had fun too.  After all this was his first running race and he kept up with me the whole way.  He even pushed the stroller the last 3/4 mile.  I asked him if he would do another race and he said yes so I'm thinking of signing us up for the Folsom Fire Cracker in July.