Meg's Mommy Blog: I rocked & I rolled for 13.1 miles!

Official time: 2:00:43

That's right! After a couple months of fretting & struggling to get my training in, it was race day - and...I did it! I was pretty nervous on Friday - mostly for Brandon. I had to leave the house at 4am in order to pick up my friend & get to the shuttle on time. Which meant that Brandon had to do the entire morning routine - including feeding the baby AND sucking snot out of her nose (since she decided to get a giant cold last week). He'd never sucked snot before - now he has :) I was pretty organized about things Friday night & that made me feel better. I packed the diaper bag myself so I knew B would have everything he needed. I packed plenty of milk in the fridge with a big post-it note that read "ICE PACK" so he wouldn't forget to put ice in there to keep things cool. I laid out the perfect Seattle-weather outfit for Abigail. A onesie, a long sleeve thermal shirt, an REI puffy vest, jeans, socks, and a warm hat. Although, when I saw her after I realized she's outgrown her hat. Oops!

So Saturday morning I got out of bed at 3:25 am, after hitting snooze & Brandon yammering at me that I needed to get up or I was going to miss my race. I tried pumping before I left the house, but got nothin. My body was like "It's too dang early to make milk!" Oh well...I picked my friend up, we stopped at 7-11 for some much needed coffee - side note: did you know Starbucks doesn't open until 5:30am? Coffee stands weren't open either - we were up THAT early! We parked in the garage by my office - a nice perk of working downtown. Walked to the shuttles & the lines were CRAZY! I started having flashbacks of the Seafair Marathon 2008 - when 400 people (including me) got stranded because they didn't have enough shuttles. We finally made it on the shuttle at 6:15am - that's right...I got up at 3:30 in the morning, picked up my friend at 4:30 am & we somehow didn't get seated on a shuttle until 6:15 am. I could probably write an entire blog about the disorganized shuttle process, but I'll leave it at that.

We got to the start line, which was in Tukwila, and met up with the rest of my friends who were running the race. It was a GREAT race! Seriously, I felt great the ENTIRE time! The weather was a bit dreary, but didn't rain. And it was nice that it stayed cool. I finished the race at 2:00:43. My goal was to finish around 2 hours - YAY! I did it! And even more than that - I ran the entire race! I was so proud of that! I've done 2 half marathons before & I walked part of the way in both of them. I'm so happy that I DID IT! I ran the entire 13.1 miles & finished at a new personal best time (I beat my previous PB by 15 minutes!!) and I accomplished all of this a mere 8 months after giving birth. :) It's all thanks to Abigail. She has given me so much more to run for. I run for a break (ha! it's true!) from my hectic life, I run to get home to her, I run to be a healthy role model for her, I run to show her that it's important to keep your own identity in life, no matter what else you have going on. She's given me such inspiration & an entirely new outlook on life - so I owe absolutely everything to her! Of course God kept my knee from going out on me, but it feels a bit like an academy awards speech to "thank God" so yeah...

Brandon & I after the race - he looks nervous because he knows Abigail is STARVING!

Once I finished the race, I had to sit down and feed Abigail immediately! HAHA! Brandon had..errr...left the milk in the fridge at home, so Abigail was ready to eat when she saw me! I threw my nursing cover on & fed her on the steps in front of Qwest Field in front of 28,000 people or so. Good thing I've gotten over my fear of public breastfeeding! She was in a MUCH better mood after she ate :)

Nursing Abigail 5 minutes after the finish line - can you see her foot peeking out? hehe!

Happy full baby!

Nothing like changing a diaper to make me feel like a mom again after 2 hours of "alone" time

My BFF Jenn & I reuniting after the race - she did AWESOME! Just flew in from Mexico the night before, got 3 hours of sleep & then ran a half marathon! She's suck a rock star!!!