As a mother of 5 children, I often feel like I'm running in circles. Don't worry, I'm not about to give you the run-down of all their activities. Personally, I have to seriously supress the eye rolling reflex when moms start talking about all the different things their children are involved in. Mother of 1, mother of 5, mother of 18, employed, stay-at-home, it doesn't matter. We're all busy. Stand near any group of motherhood-age women and it won't be long before one of them starts spouting off their list of precisely scheduled and impossibly overlapping activities. The other women nod in sympathy, or make mildly supportive comments about how they don't know how you do it all, or how it will get easier when the kids are old enough to drive, but most of them are thinking, "Oh, please, she calls THAT busy? She could never handle MY schedule." Point is, I often feel like I'm running in circles.
I have an on-again, off-again relationship with the literal act of running. When I was a child, we lived across the street from a middle school in a suburb of Dallas. My parents would get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and while my dad was getting ready for work, my mom would mysteriously slip out the front door. 45 minutes later, when Dad was leaving the house to join the commuter traffic into downtown Dallas, Mom would reappear sweaty and red-faced, telling me to get ready for school as she headed for the shower. I was in the 4th grade before I figured out that she was running on the middle school track in the pre-dawn dark and I had children of my own before I figured out WHY she ran.
In junior high and high school running was a popular form of punishment. Forget your gym shoes? Go walk the track while the other kids play kick ball. Lose a basketball game? Show up for practice the next morning at 5:30 and run "horses" in the gym until the regular practice starts at 6:00am. Sass the volleyball coach? Run laps until she remembers to tell you to stop, or until 2nd period classes start, whichever comes first. Slowest one on the track team at finishing the mile? Go run an extra lap and maybe next time you won't be so lazy. Yes, I have personal experience with all of these scenarios. Good times.
My freshman year of college in Abilene, Texas, I attempted to outrun the "Freshman 15", but during my sophomore year, the school subcontracted with Pizza Hut and TCBY. I lost the famous Battle of 15 Pounds because of "fat free" yogurt (and the fact that I still considered running a punishment).
I didn't put on a pair athletic shoes for four years. By then, my husband and I were living in Fort Worth, Texas, and had a 10 month old baby. I was drowning in the stress of a young marriage, first time motherhood, a full-time social work job, and being the wife of a minister. Just when I thought I was going to have a permanent meltdown or, even worse, say a curse word out loud, two things happened. First, I discovered an irresistible jogging path that ran along the Trinity River, under huge shady trees, through a beautiful park and out past the zoo. Second, I caught wind of a rumor that my younger brother had started running and, being the competitive woman I am, I decided that if he could do it, so could I.
I never have been consistent enough in my running for it to fairly be called a fitness program. Mostly, I have used running to help me deal with the stressful times in my life. I run when I need a break from my kids, when I have a particularly bad argument with my husband, when a friendship dissolves, or when we move. When we lived in Fort Worth, I ran the Trinity River path until my jaunts got longer and started taking me further out, under some creepy, graffittied overpasses. After that, I found a route along the sidewalks of busy streets that took me through the museum district. I ran that loop for about 6 six months, until they started doing some major construction on University. Then my running slacked off again.
After living in Fort Worth for 5 years, we moved to Golden, Colorado, near Denver, closer to the mountains. By the time we moved there, we had 3 kids. My oldest daughter was 6, my second daughter was 17 months and my son was 4 months. The two babies were only 13 months apart in age, and I don't do strenuous exercise when I'm pregnant, so it had been about 2 years since my last run. The good news was there was a paved running path just outside our back gate and there's something about the view of the mountains that lures you outside even when your common sense is begging you to consider the appeal of the warm house versus the dry cold of the outdoors. I ran consistently for the next two years, but didn't see any improvement beyond an 11 minute mile, with a two mile long average distance. And then I got pregnant with baby number 4. After her birth, I lost my pregnancy weight pretty quickly, but I never got back into a running routine. We celebrated her 1st birthday in June and in August we moved to Los Angeles, California.
We lived in LA for 1 difficult year, that included me struggling with depression and homesickness for Colorado, and 2 stolen cars, among many other things. I only ran a couple of times that year, but my husband did buy me a super-fun beach cruiser bicycle that I rode almost every day.
After the year in LA, we moved to our present home in Benton, Arkansas, near Little Rock. Right after we moved here I found a nearby park with a paved running path. I enjoyed several good runs there, but when school opened for the kids in September, we all started passing around a nasty stomach virus. The kids recovered, but I stayed sick for two full months. I laid around the house all day feeling sluggish and tired and throwing up. Another month of denial later, I finally took the pregnancy test and it came back positive.
Baby Girl Number 5 is now 2 years old (that's 4 girls and 1 boy for those of you who are keeping track). This past Thanksgiving I decided it was time to get my body moving again. I didn't really intend for it to be a New Year's Resolution, but extremely cold, wet weather and holiday travel kept pushing my plans back farther.
Enter my younger brother again. Kevin lives near me with his wife and daughter and is now considered an elite athlete as he is a finisher of at least 2 iron distance triathalons. Show off. Anyway, he emailed the entire family a couple of weeks before Christmas inviting and challenging us to join him in the Oklahoma City Marathon at the end of April. He knew none of us would agree to run a full marathon, so he suggested we form a relay team and he would run the longest leg. My brother and I are not the only competitive people in our family, so it only took a few hours for us to more than fill the 5 person relay team. To take care of the surplus of family members who wanted in on the contest, Kevin's wife Kasie suggested we form 2 teams: 1 team of "In-Laws" and 1 team of "Out-Laws". The Out-Laws will be Kevin and me, our 2 other sisters (Shondra and Melissa), and my daughter, Mattie, who will be 14 at the time of the race. The In-Laws will consist of Kasie, Trent (Shondra's husband), Kyle (Melissa's husband), and Mom and Dad will round out that team. Funny that our parents are siding with the In-Laws, don't you think?! I wish so much that my awesome husband would join the team, but he says he only runs if he's being chased by someone who is too big for him to stand and fight, so he's out.
So, my brother sent everyone a very realistic training schedule that, if we follow it pretty closely, should have us ready to race by April 26. His schedule had us beginning on January 3rd, but because I wanted to get a jump on everyone else, I intended to start training the day after Christmas. However, if you are a reader of my other blog, you will know that the same day I agreed to do the race, I broke my toe. Blast! The doctor gave me some pretty strong pain medicine and said I should heal in 3 to 4 weeks, but I figure, "no pain, no gain," so I'll wait a week or two and then see how I feel.
