Baystate Half 2018

I'm sure you've been dying to read this update, and here it is.  Not even a week late! Amazing. 
So I did run last Sunday, as I said I was going too.  Turns out I ran more than I anticipated, making it to around 7.5 before I started walk/running.  Pretty good considering 6 was my max and even that was a one time only training run.  Of course, I still had to stop at every porta-john on the course, but that's just something I'm going to have to embrace, for now, I guess.  The course itself wasn't too bad and the weather turned out pretty nice considering it was cloudy and drizzly when I woke up.  Wind was only an issue on the back side of the course on the Esplanade and on the bridges.  Other than that, it wasn't too noticeable.  Ryan and X came for the end but it was too cold for X so they ended up waiting in the car for me.  At least they made it to the end, last year, Scott and I went to meet Ryan and Brittany and arrived after they had finished!
Speaking of finishes, I suppose you want my stats now.  I'm going to give both Garmin and official stats because they're widely different.  Of course, every bathroom stop I paused my Garmin because I like to know runtime, not time elapsed.  And I'm sure you're all aware that the course time doesn't stop for you.  So my course time was 2:45, official.  My Garmin time was 2:26.  I guess I took 20 minutes worth of bathroom breaks! If there's one thing I would like to improve on now, it would be that.  20 minutes is almost enough time for another whole 5K! Unfortunately, I'm not really sure there's much I can do in the way of eliminating bathroom breaks, except let time pass.  At the end of the day though, I'm just happy I was able to finish the race and that I can reasonably expect to be able to continue running longer distances now. 
In a weird coincidence, this half was 11 weeks after his birth.  The Louisiana half, which was the last half I ran, I was 11 weeks pregnant.  For comparison, I ran Louisiana in 2:30, also with bathroom breaks.  But I was a bit more in shape then, considering I had been working out all summer and had just run a trail marathon back in November.  So that one was probably easier, though it didn't seem like it at the time.
So I was a bit sore the day after, but who wouldn't be.  It took a long time for me to not be sore after running a half and then I went 5 months without running longer than 4 miles once or twice.  So that's going to be something else I need to build back up.  Since I didn't want to run and make the soreness worse, I decided to at least go out walking this week.  We went all over the place this time, the bike path, the battle road, you name it, we went there.  Two of our walks were over 4 miles, the others were shorter.  Still, I feel better walking since I haven't been able to get to the gym.  Plus, stroller time is the only long nap X takes, so it's either go out walking while he naps or sit at home and listen to him cry every 30 minutes when he wakes and probably won't go back to sleep.  I'll choose to walk every time in that case. 
But now I need to make a choice.  Sign up for another half or just run for recreation.  Both seem like good ideas on any given day.  The biggest influence is the weather, which could ruin both choices.  If I run for recreation, I know I won't go when it's too cold, windy, snowy, etc.  If I have a half to run, I'm more likely to go out and run. However, I wouldn't want to run in that weather, so I just don't know.  Sometimes it's just hard to make a choice. 

On our way to the start

I will take a porta-potty picture every time.

Starting line---brrrrr

Finished. X is not impressed

Inspiring messages on the bike path. 

Only 5 days until Halloween.  So we wear our costumes out to stay warm.

4 Under 40

Ok so I still haven't done much running, but I did get 4 miles on the elliptical the other day, in just over 33 minutes!  I know that road running is going to be much harder than elliptical moving, but if I can hang for at least 5 - 6 on the elliptical, I'll be fairly confident in my ability to be able to run/walk and complete the half next month.  Plus I have my 6-week check-up next Monday, so hopefully, after that, I can go back to full time running without worrying.  I'd love to be able to go out on the rail trail, especially now that it's almost fall, which is generally perfect running weather.  The Bob website says that babies can ride in the seat starting at 8 weeks, so even if I can't run a ton, we can go for long walks on the rail trail.
Besides my elliptical success, I've been using resistance bands to work on my leg and back strength.  I noticed that even though I can *sort of* fit into my regular clothes, for the most part, my back and legs seem to have changed the most.  (Well, outside of the obvious places, of course.) So I'm trying to get some tone back into those places.  Like I said, I really need Title again.  I know they would be able to whip me back into shape in no time.  Unfortunately, without daycare, there are not too many gym options for us at the moment.  Eventually, I would like to leave P.F. and join a place that does baby swim lessons, like the Y.  What I would really like is to join Lifetime, but they're crazy expensive and probably not worth it right now.  Maybe in the future. 
Back to the elliptical for a minute though.  Am I the only one whose feet start feeling like they're falling asleep after a mile or two on it?  I get pins and needles going and I'm not entirely sure why.  Once I was told that going backward will alleviate that problem, but I'm not there to go backward at the moment.  My other thought was that my shoes are too small, but even when I wore my regular old running shoes, it still happened.  It's not really a problem so much as an annoyance, but I am curious if it happens to anyone else.