Feet Move Forward

On Saturday I ran my first 5k in 2-1/2 years. In a costume. And I stuck to my race plan. And it wasn't my slowest 5k. In fact, it was faster than the last 5k I ran, pre-baby! Nevermind that my average pace (7:22) was my half marathon PR pace from 2011- any my 10k PR pace in 2013. Ironic. The race is known as the "largest and fastest parade of costumes in southern Minnesota" so I felt it only appropriate to dress up. I Googled costume ideas and settled on the Cookie Monster which seemed easy enough to make at home. I procrastinated on making it until the night before the race, when I discovered that the fabric glue I bought wasn't holding. Enter my savior husband and his suggestion of the construction adhesive Liquid Nails. Worked like a charm. #nerdalert I woke up early on Saturday and snuck out of bed to get ready while Ulla slept. I woke her up at the last minute and loaded her into the car for the trip to my mom's. She never fell back asleep and ...

I've been neglecting this space, mostly for lack of time but more so I just forget how good it feels to write until I do. So here I am, while Ulla unloads four containers of Playdoh on the floor at my feet. Let's talk running! Running has been happening on a weekly basis but that's the extent of it's consistency. I haven't hit double digit miles for the week since running Grandma's Half in June. I've been happy to get out for 30 minutes a couple times a week and haven't worried about it if I can't. It was summer in Minnesota, after all. I don't do hot weather running very well, especially when early morning runs aren't an option (read: a husband that leaves for work by 6:20 a.m. and a baby that still isn't sleeping through the night). But now it's Fall, a season made specifically for runners thankyouJesus . It's made me all kinds of motivated and tonight has consisted of a cross-training session at the gym, dinner, my favor...

I ran Grandma's Half last week, after roughly a dozen training runs spread over two months. That's not a typo, or an understatement. My training was minimal . Going into the race, I thought I'd run around a 9:30 pace, so I was shocked when miles ticked by in the mid 8's. I was even more shocked when it stayed that way, and that I finished feeling (relatively) good in 1:51:24, an 8:31 average pace. If someone would have offered me $100k to run an 8:30 pace for 13.1 miles, I literally don't think I would've been able to do it. And yet I did. I keep thinking about this little corner of the internet, one that I've occupied for nearly six years, and how much life has changed in that period. Moves. Jobs. Marriage. Baby. Carl. But one thing hasn't changed: my love for running. Is it odd to say that I come here often and read my own posts, and that reading them feels like the greatest motivator? Is it odd to say that I feel like I have a better shot at ...