Early (but temporary) retirement.

Today, I fear, was the last running day I will take with my dear old Bob the double jogger for quite a long, long while.  I had wanted to go for a run last night after the kids were in bed, but by 3pm, I knew that I'd be lucky to stay up later than the kids, let alone go running after they were asleep.  Unfortunately, one of the pregnancy symptoms that I cannot seem to combat is fatigue.  I am tired.  It's not quite the same tired as I get during the first trimester, where I could literally fall asleep anywhere, but it is tired nonetheless.  After an exhausting Monday at work, Dan was tired too, so once the kids were in bed and we were sitting around trying to decide what to watch we made a smart decision and headed to bed... at 8pm!  We put a movie on the computer for a little bit and put Jonny back to bed twice, but I think we were both asleep by 9.  Because of the early bedtime, I thought I'd have no problem getting up early to run... wrong.  I decided I could use a couple more hours this morning too.  Because I really felt the need to get a run in, I was left with the option of a double jogger run once the oldest two chickadees where off to school.

It's been a couple of weeks since I took the kids out in the stroller and we were all kind of looking forward to it.  The weather was foggy, but not raining and cool but not cold.  It was really great running weather.  I wanted to run by the river and decided on one of my favorite 5 mile loops.  The only problem with that run is it has some decent inclines (not really hills but definitely not flat) that don't really seem too bad unless you're pushing two squirming kids in a stroller.  By 1 1/2 miles in, I could tell that I was working too hard.  Not only is it more difficult running with the stroller but I tend to do it faster... for a little bit, before I decided I really had to make myself slow down, my pace was hovering in the 8:40s which is much, much faster than I have been running as of late.  My belly felt sore, my lower back hurt and Leona wanted to know why I kept stopping.  At 2 miles, I decided that it really wouldn't be in my best interest to make it to the halfway point bridge, so I turned around and turned my 5 mile loop into a 4 mile out and back.  Leona was slightly disappointed because I had promised her 2 bridge crossing and we didn't cross any, but she got over it when I let her out to run the last little bit to our house.

I'm sad to put Bob away.  This is partially because outside of a few walks to the park and playgroup, Leona may never ride in him again and she really, really enjoys running with me.

Enjoying a run last summer.

It also means, however, that if I want to keep running for the next 4+ weeks I'm going to have to get my sleepy self out of bed before the sun or try to stay up later than my kiddos.  It's a really good thing that I want to be able to finish this race with my mom and friends or I might be tempted to go into an early retirement too.