Moving right along
Another midwife visit this week (at roughly 32 weeks, 4 days), and everything’s looking great… which is fantastic, to say the least. Interestingly, she said that many of the practice’s patients who are runners either begin to really slow down their running at this point in their pregnancy or stop altogether and move to the elliptical. If given the choice, obviously I’d opt for the former rather than the latter. I have no shame in plodding along if need be!
Her bringing up that point prompted me to ask what she thought of my potentially running the MM half marathon in two weeks. And long story short, in part due to what she said, and largely in part to my own fears of being really far away from the city, my hospital, and my midwives in the off-chance that something bad happens, I’ve decided to forgo the race. Yeah, I’m not doing it.
At any other time, right about now I’d write something like “yeah, bummer that I can’t do it…” and lament the day away, but I’m actually pleased with my choice. I feel like I’m doing the responsible adult thing. 🙂 Honestly, I have no doubt that I’m physically still able to run a half marathon–although slowly–at this point in my pregnancy, but I feel like I need to be cautious and err on the side of safety. After all, if I hurt myself in some way, I won’t be hurting just me… little Yoda would inevitably feel some of it as well. And God forbid I go into pre-term labor or something awful like that when I’m over an hour away from Northwestern. There will always be other MM half-marathons each spring, and certainly there will always be other races, too. In fact, there’s a 5k/8k race in Chicago that very same morning, at Diversey Harbor, that I’m eying. Not only is the distance more manageable for a 35-week-pregnant lady, but it’s also in the city, and it’s just a stone’s-throw away from Northwestern (again, just playing it safe here). I’ll *probably* sign-up for it and do it for kicks.
The silver lining to my not running the MM race is that someone else will be able to… at least, as much as I can tell. The MM race is incredibly popular because of the time of year (not much competition for other distances race in Chicagoland in March), it falls in line with Boston training pretty well, it’s inexpensive, and it’s on a tough, hilly course, and all these factors combined this year to make the event sell-out in fewer than two hours. Two hours! Granted, part of that is because the race can only take 1,000 entrants, but still! Two freakin’ hours! Once I decided that I wasn’t going to do the run any longer, I emailed the race director that night, explained my situation, and asked that he extend my spot to someone he knew who really wanted to run but didn’t register in time or, better yet, post my spot on Ebay and auction it off as part of their scholarship fundraising drive, since the race’s proceeds supports a scholarship in the first place. Everything I’ve ever read suggests that entries are non-transferable, so I thought it was a long shot that he’d hear me out. However, based on our email exchange, I think they’ll be able to allow another runner to fill my spot.
Talk about a pleasant surprise!
I’m glad I did my due diligence here because otherwise, I’d feel kinda guilty for flaking out on a race that many people want to run but can’t. I guess it just goes to show you that there’s no harm done in asking for things for which you think you’ll be rejected. 🙂