we took the baby along for his first 5k race today. the Ravenswood 5k is a favorite of mine, mainly because it starts and ends about 8 blocks from our house, enabling us to wake up at 7am for an 8am start time. and also because it loops through our neighborhood, is populated with our neighbors, and is generally the sort of friendly casual race that has room for kids, strollers and dogs as well as those stringy dudes who finish in 15 minutes flat. oh, and raises money for the ravenswood food pantry, too.

my “race” results:

Overall place 1876 / 3176
Div (women 35-40) 159 / 323
Finish time: 32:43

it’s not the 20 min times i used to log in high school cross country, but for being 24 weeks pregnant, it feels pretty good to have still finished in the top half of my division.

it was cold but a beautiful sunny morning, and our friends Chris and Carly ran with us. good friends, good community, good running.

i will admit that after spending about 8 hours yesterday, and another 4 today painting the dining room, and running this 5k a bit faster than i normally run these days, i am feeling creaky, sore and wiped out tonight! this kid is starting to slow me down, just a bit. already it’s clear that we are raising an active baby: i rarely hold still during the day, and when i’m up and moving, the baby seems perfectly content to be quiet and still. but as soon as i lay down at night, or even sit still for more than 20 minutes, then he wakes up and begins to kick. i suspect this means we’ll need to invest in some baby-shaking devices and some hand-free baby-wearing devices if we’ll have any hope of surviving the first few months.