TC 1 Mile Race Report - 36 Weeks Pregnant!

The Munchkin's room is finally ready! We spent yesterday afternoon setting up the baby swing, getting the carseat installed, doing one more load of laundry, and buying a few last "must-haves." Saturday was our last baby shower. Steve's sister put in so much work, and it was a blast seeing everybody. I don't know when we'll be getting home again since pretty soon I won't want to be 2 hours from home (and our hospital). Now it's just a lot of hurry up and wait. Statistically, Baby won't likely be coming for at least 4 more weeks, but I've had a number of friends who got caught off guard, and I didn't want to be one of them!

Last Thursday was the TC 1 mile. To be honest, I've written this race off in years past. Since they guarantee entry into the TC 10 mile for 1000 out of the 3500 entrants, I've always assumed that the only reason to run it was to get a slot, and since I've always run the marathon, I wasn't interested in that. Plus, the race is on a Thursday night, and being out on "school nights" sometimes makes it hard for me to get up for work the next morning!

This year, though, I am very aware that every time I go out for a run, it could be my last for a little while. I'm still feeling OK as far as the running goes, and I knew one mile would be doable even if I was having an off day. Plus, they had given out coupon codes in our Marathon race packets last fall for $5 off one of their races. That brought the price down to $15, so I registered. I had so much fun that I'll be going back next year. It was one amazing fun party!

This was their 7th year putting it on, and they've had the bid for the USA 1 Mile Road Championship for a couple of years now. I was signed up in the "friends and family" wave, which was the first of 7 waves. I knew it would be pretty low-key, and I was confident that I could finish under the 13 min cutoff since many of my runs have been around 12:30 pace lately. My goal was just to have fun and savor what will likely be my last race before Baby shows up.

The weather was pretty crappy. It was cool and rainy, and we had to work to stay warm while we waited for the start. Steve was wearing his tri backpack filled with our stuff. The plan was for him to see me off at the start and then race ahead every couple of blocks until I got there. I really thought I'd be super slow and he'd have plenty of time to wait for me. Right before the race, he decided he just wanted to run it as a bandit. I warned him that it specifically states in the rules that bandits aren't allowed. "Honey, this is the Friends and Family Wave," he said. "Plus, you're pregnant. Nobody's going to care if I run beside you." Since it was the first time he's pulled the pregnancy card, I went with it.

Lined up at the start.


Steve and me ready to run.

I took my place at the back of the line, and we were off! The Friends and Family wave really was full of families. It was so cute! There were little kids running with their parents who were as young as 3 or 4, and there were plenty of older children, too.

Someone had told us before the race that there were mile markers at every 1/4 mile, and after dodging a LOT of people at the beginning, I hit the first one in around 2:43. That's when I knew that I was running WAY faster than I had expected. I was trying really hard not to push myself too much. I wasn't at full conversational pace, but I could still talk with Steve without much effort, so I knew I was fine. I noticed a few cheers for the beach ball, but Steve was noticing a lot more reactions. I think his favorite part of the race was seeing people's double takes, extra cheers, and smiles as I ran by. I couldn't help but wonder what people thought as I was passing them!

Running with a beach ball!


Over half done.

Unfortunately, I lost the rest of my 1/4 mile splits, but each of them got progressively faster, just as the crowd got progressively thicker as we neared the finish line. Despite the weather, there were tons of people out there!

Running toward the finish.


Crossing the finish line.

I hit the finish line in a time of 10:24.7 with a huge smile on my face. I felt a little crampy afterward - just for a minute or 2, but baby was kicking away, so I wasn't worried at all. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to run it any faster. Baby and I have now done 5 races together. How appropriate that the first one was a Twin Cities in Motion race - the marathon.

After my heat was over, we walked back to Britt's Pub to thank Michelle Frey - local speedy runner and extra loud cheerer out there. She had spotted us during the race.

With local speedy runner Michelle Frey.

We grabbed a steamer at a local coffee place and went back to cheer on the TONS of people we knew who were racing. The last waves were the women's and men's championship. I got goosebumps as Sara Hall ran by us to break the course record for women and snag the time bonus. In the men's race, David Torrence took the threepeat and the cash bonus for time. The crowd erupted!

I would HIGHLY recommend this race to the locals. It was just such a fun celebration, it's not super pricey, and it's a great way to push yourself in a distance that most of us aren't used to racing. Of course, I didn't actually race this time around, and it may have been a little less fun had I been pushing myself to that level, but I remember thinking, Wow. That's it? when I was done.

On our walk/jog back to the car, Steve commented that his legs were a little sore from carrying the backpack around for 3 hours. I smiled and coyly asked him if he thought the backpack weighed an extra 30-35 pounds. He sheepishly admitted it wasn't even close.

So what's next? Well, I'm just going to keep running as long as I can. A lot of people are really surprised that I'm still running, but I just keep telling them that it's better than waiting around. The baby's not going to come any faster if I stop. This may have been my last race while pregnant, but I haven't ruled out finding a nice slow 5K somewhere, either - one where I wouldn't feel guilty about stopping to walk if I need to. I'm not trying to prove anything. I just still feel pretty good, and I know it's good for me physically and emotionally to keep going if I can. I also know that one of these days, the running may just have to stop for a while, or maybe I'll just be one of those women who runs until the day she gives birth. Either way, I'll keep you posted!