I LOVE these Bellies

I simply love having my running buddy back, even if it is just for a 8 days.  Texas and Colorado just aren't close enough.  It's even sweeter that we are pregnant together.  We always talked about what would it be like to be pregnant together and it is simply a wonderful God given experience.  Especially because we are both having little ladies, or perhaps future running buddies?

We have both tried our darndest to keep our running shoes in motion during this pregnancy and have used each other as the extra motivation and inspiration to keep going.  Sure some of it has been good old healthy competition, but I know that for me it has given me something to focus on other than the never ending yucky feeling.  There are some days that we will each post a run on facebook and realize that we were running at about the same time.  Gives a whole new meaning to the term "distance running."

Well after the awful Thanksgiving bug, I simply could not wait to get out to Texas and run with Grace in the Ft. Worth Cowtown 5k.  At 37 weeks she is still going strong, and at 25 weeks I had gone 3 days without vomiting so 3 miles seemed like the perfect distance.  Of course, it did require an hour and 40 minute car ride to get to the start, and we really underestimated how big the race actually was, but after stressful traffic, finding parking, loosing Sebron and, oh yeah, doing all of this with 4 children in tow, we made it to the start with 15 minutes to spare.  Whew!

Grace and I found a great system for pushing all of our charges.  With two securely on our bodies we put the other two in the double jogger and then pushed behind our respective toddlers.  Boy we must have looked a sight.  Too bad we couldn't get any "in motion" pictures.  In an attempt to not run over anyone with our wide load, we decided to hang at the back of the very big 5k pack.  Wrong choice.  Here we are "runners" and the 5k crowd is a different group, especially the back of the 5k crowd.  5k's are like social jaunts. Some run, but most are new runners, so the etiquette is lost on them, and the back of the pack is where the "walkers/strollers/morning jaunters hang out."  Speed or any kind of gumption is nill, everyone is talking to their friends without thought to anything else, and most of the others have their headphones in and are oblivious to the outside world.  I am waiting for the Ft. Worth review to come out and have the headlines read, "Pregnant women disrupt 5k run with their incessant, 'ON YOUR LEFT.'"  It was our mantra the whole time.

We managed to cross the finish line after being able to run the entire way.  We waded through the line, got some food, had the kids eat it all and then got back in our car to head back to Saint Jo!  I adore this family, and LOVE these bellies.

Glad we got to make more running memories together!