August Race Recap

before the race started

Saturday I completed my August race, which made it my 8th race of the year and the 2nd towards fulfilling my 40 by 40 goal.

It was 8 weeks since my last race, the 4th of July 5k, and just under 6 weeks since Ocean was born. So this race was done without any training, but was a good check-in to see where my body is at and how everything's feeling. I did the race with my friend C, who's about 5 months pregnant and we had planned on walking the whole race. We were both feeling pretty good though, so we started the race at a slow jog and alternated between walking and slow jogging for the duration of the race.

I remembered my insides not feeling great when I started running after giving birth to River, so I erred on the side of caution and wore my pregnancy support belt. It fits a lot different when it's not supporting a baby :) But it still helped stabilize my hips and put pressure on my abdomen so my uterus didn't jiggle around.

And I felt pretty good while jogging.

While 6 weeks of sitting on the couch didn't prepare me for a 4 mile race, I also didn't injure myself because we went at such a relaxed pace. My lower back is a bit stiff and my upper thighs and IT bands are a little sore, but really, I've had much worse sore muscles on other occasions, so I'm not complaining.

I've been chafing at my inability to exercise, and it felt glorious to be outside and moving again.

The race was 4.02 miles and I completed it in 1:00:18. I went into this race without any expectations at all, so I am more than happy with my finish time.
1st mile- 14:40
2nd mile- 15:22
3rd mile- 15:42
4th mile- 14:21

sunrise through the mist on the fields

The race is a small race on tree-lined country roads that run between farm fields and over small rivers with a view of our local mountains. There aren't any steep hills, just gently rolling hills that aren't challenging at all. C and I both agreed that it was a gorgeous course and definitely worth doing again. It costs only $20 and has a much, much smaller field of runners, which makes it a great alternative to the more expensive and way more crowded other 4 mile race I've run. It didn't hurt that the weather was almost perfect: cool and low humidity at the start, and while it was warmer and more humid by the time we finished it wasn't horrible. The other 4 mile race is scheduled for this coming Saturday and temps are supposed to be in the 90s. Glad I'm not running that one.

2015 races

Month	Race Time
August 4 mile		almost 6 weeks postpartum
July 5k	47:44	38 weeks pregnant
June 5k	41:19	34 weeks pregnant
May 5k	40:05	29 weeks pregnant pushed River in the jogger
April 5k	42:36	28 weeks pregnant pushed River in the jogger
March 5k	35:32	22 weeks pregnant
February 5k	33:55	20 weeks pregnant
January 5k	33:25	12 weeks pregnant

40 by 40

	Date	Event	Distance	Event Type
1.	July	4th of July 5k	5k	Pregnant
2.	August	4 Mile Fun Run	4 miles	Road Race