I won’t claim to be back to prime blogging form (like September…seven whole posts!!), but I am still alive. I thought perhaps being a stay-at-home dad (I’m gonna have to use SAHD from now on) would have left me lifeless, but would you believe my son is now almost four months old, and my fingers are still spry enough for typing?
He’s an incredible joy if you’re wondering. I say that even after the vomit- and diarrhea-filled week (mostly him) after Christmas, not to mention those sleep droughts that left me sprawled on the couch, mumbling about green poop.
Have I kept up with the running? Yes and no. My schedule slackened a bit right after Mateo was born, down to maybe two good runs a week, with an occasional third if I had the time and energy. As he slept more and more at night, I started being fairly consistent with three runs, usually with two on the weekend because the shortening days meant huffing along on our surprisingly dark neighborhood streets, getting slapped in the face by low-hanging branches.
I had regained some momentum moving into November and ran my first 5K on the new 355 Veterans Memorial Tollway. A friend and I entered the event thinking it was a race. Not that we had any notions of being competitive with anyone but ourselves, but we had imagined official times and all that. As it turned out, our first race was something more of a fun run, although the first finishers did receive some kind of awards. We still had fun and got the T-shirts to prove we were there. Because we started about a thousand people back, and I missed the exact starting line for my own watch, I didn’t get an accurate time. I know it was in the neighborhood of 26 minutes, about a minute slower than my goal.
I got a cold right after Thanksgiving, so that grounded me for a bit. Colds have caused me to quit running long term on several occasions, so with some measure of determination, I hit the roads again after a little more than a week. By Christmas, I felt really good again. In fact, on Christmas day I put four great miles under my belt. I had visions of my first nine mile attempt for the weekend. Alas, my body had other plans, and I spent the next several days with a wicked something or other playing havoc with my GI system.
Well, this update is really starting to get a little boring, so I’ll sum up by saying I’m going running tomorrow, and I really hope my body is done being sick for the season. Oh yes, and I’m running the Chicago Marathon this year. Woo-hoo!
I am impressed! I’ve never done a marathon.