An Anniversary

Tomorrow's Halloween Race will be an anniversary for me -- one year since I returned to running after having Sophie. Last year when I ran this race, I was three weeks post-partum. Jim registered for me so I could nurse Sophie right before the start of the race. As soon as we finished, I rushed to find my mom and Sophie so I could nurse her again. Last year, it took me more than 30 minutes to run this race. I had run twice the week before, but otherwise hadn't run since my 5th month of pregnancy. While running the race, I felt like I was having an episiotomy performed on my still-sore girl parts all over again.

A lot has happened in the past year: I've lost all the baby weight (putting me at a nice 35 pounds lighter than I was at this race last year!), ran a marathon, two half-marathons, and a good fistful of shorter races, and finished breastfeeding and completely healed the girl parts.

This year's Heather (or should I say, Little Red Riding Hood -- it is a costume race, after all), is going to kick last year's Heather's ass. I don't really set any time goals for this race because it is more about having fun running along the parade route (the kids love the Little Red Riding Hood/Big Bad Wolf deal), I know I will beat last year's time. And, coming off last week's PR, I'm thinking I can hit a post-pregnancy PR for a 5K at least. Which, considering everything that's happened in the last year, is good enough for me!

Happy Friday!