9 Months and 5 Miles

Sam is now 9 months old, which is hard to believe! Who would have thought 9 months could go by so quickly, and how much one little being could change in that amount of time? Sam is a happy bundle of energy, and we've been having lots of fun with her. When she's excited to see us, we get the whole body smile. She waves hi and bye. She can clap. She laughs and squeals and blows raspberries. She will, on occasion, give me adorable open-mouthed kisses. She loves her kitty cats, and will pull on their tails, feet and anything else she can get her hands on if they get too close. She can sit like a champ, rolls all over the place, and is definitely going to crawl soon - she's getting up regularly on all fours and rocking back and forth - so close!

She does not yet have any teeth. Green beans are her favorite food (who would have thought?!), and she is getting to be pretty good with the Cheerios we put on her tray. Her hand/eye coordination is solid, and her pincer grip well developed. She loves her sippy cup, and protests when we take it away.

She can sit contentedly playing independently with her toys for long stretches but also loves to bounce in her bouncer. I try to read to her every day and she loves her books, although I think she likes to eat them more than she likes looking through them with me :-) She is not yet sleeping through the night, but she's a tiny little munchkin so I'm not cutting her off from her middle of the night feedings just yet.

We had her 9 month appointment this afternoon, and Sam is weighing in at a whopping 16 lbs. 13 oz., and is measuring 25.5". This puts her in the 10th percentile for weight and 5th for height, so she isn't exactly a big girl, but she is gaining weight on a good curve, and certainly has the appropriate baby thunder thighs and buddha belly. They just happen to be smaller than they might be on a larger baby :-) And like the doctor said, she certainly is cute!

Happy baby

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I snuck in a run on the 5-mile Homeplace loop this morning while Sam took her nap. It was warm out, but there was a good breeze which kept the deer flies to a minimum. I felt pretty good, although tired. My left ankle was a bit sore, but otherwise, nothing hurt. I wore my pink road shoes in the hopes of getting them a bit dirty, but man, they still look pretty bright!

Bradbury Scuffle Race Report

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Sunday's 6-mile Scuffle race. I missed the inaugural race in 2008 due to work. Last year I was pregnant and didn't run. I certainly haven't been training for a short race. In fact, I haven't run a short race since the 2008 Thanksgiving Feaster Five. I definitely haven't been doing any speed work, and June wasn't a stellar training month. After running the course a few weeks ago, and saying I was hoping to run 55 minutes or so, I'll admit that my quiet hope was really to run under 9:00 pace. I thought I just might be able to pull that off if all went my way on race day, and in my mind having a good race at the Scuffle, while not redemption for my DNF at Pineland, would at least let me feel like all was not lost, and allow me to feel OK with my running again.

The morning dawned overcast and muggy, despite the rain the night before. Irene and Dana came over to watch Sam for us while we ran, and I headed out around 7:45am, stopping in Freeport to pick up Meghan at their hotel. Ryan and I both really appreciated his parent's help this weekend! Without it, both of us racing would never have worked, and it was great for Sam to be able to spend more time with them too! Thanks guys! We were also super excited that Meghan and Chris had decided to come up to visit as well, and that Meghan was game for her first trail race ever!

After a few words from Ian at the start, including a tribute to his friend Chris which made me tear up, we were off. The start was a quick one, downhill on the Knight Woods trail. I tried to maintain a reasonable pace, which was hard with people zooming by me on all sides. I ended up running along next to Chuck, in his blue plaid kilt, who was running easy in preparation for next week's VT100 race. We chatted a bit as we turned onto the Snowmobile Trail, passing a number of people who had gone out a bit too fast on the initial downhill. As we turned onto the singletrack, I got into line behind Chuck and a few others and we wound our way through the woods. We eventually caught up to Jim, and our train snaked its way along, over roots, rocks and bridges. Chuck yelled back encouragement, telling me to keep up, while Jim yelled back that he liked it better last year when I was fat and slow! :-) Ha! I kept up at the back of the train, passing a few people along the way as we made our way up Ginn to the aid station at the Snowmobile trail junction.

There, Chuck took off, while I stopped to get a drink of water, and Jim stopped to chat for a few seconds with Dora. At this point, I knew there was only a little over 2 miles to go on a wider, less technical trail, so I vowed to pick up the pace as much as I could. Jim trailed along behind me as we ran up the Snowmobile trail, calling me out for going around the big puddle, but I managed to pull away, at least for a while, until he caught me towards the end of the big downhill on the Snowmobile trail. D**n downhills! They are just not my friend. Ah well. Jim didn't get too far away though, and I caught him as we made our way up the final hill. I called out to him to come along, telling him I was sure he could out-sprint me, but he called back that he'd run for 3 hours yesterday, so I said OK, and took off. I worked pretty hard on the uphill as I really didn't want him to catch back up :-) and managed to cross the line in 50:04 (43/147). I was pretty spent, but felt really good about how the race had gone. I think I surprised Ryan a bit, finishing as I did - I know he had faith in me to run well, but perhaps not that much faith :-) Anyway, I'll take it!

Full results here.

As usual, Ian, with the help of all the volunteers and with Ryan at his side as his new assistant, did a wonderful job with the race. The course was well-marked, the awards were many and the t-shirts a great design. Thanks guys! There was a big turn-out, with 147 finishers, and lots of fast types to stack the field. All our Trail Monster friends had great races, and everyone I talked to had fun, including Meghan, and our friend Scot, who was running the race despite never having run more than 5.5 miles! Woohoo! They both had smiles on their faces at the finish, so we'll call it a success :-)

Pink

I have never been a fan of the color pink. When we found out we were having a girl, I vowed that she would not be dressed all in pink. Well, guess what? If you have a child, and she is a girl, you will have to put her in pink clothes! Almost everything we have gotten for Sam in terms of clothing has some pink in it. There is no way around it. So, I have just shrugged my shoulders and surrendered to the pink. But that does not apply to me! Pink? On me? No way! So when I opened the box of new Asics Gel Nimbus that I had bought at Maine Running Company the other week, without trying them on or even looking in the box, because I know they fit, and realized that this pair had hot pink highlights, I almost died.



Oh man! I was going to be wearing these! And they are bright pink! Why, oh why, do shoe companies assume I want to wear pink shoes? Am I the only one that would be happier with blue? Or yellow? Or orange? I am going to have to run these shoes through some serious mud to cover up the pink.... Too bad it has been hot and dry, and the route I ran this morning didn't take me through any big muddle puddles! I did however, stop to pick a few beautifully ripe pink raspberries :-)

Lilies Galore

Wood lily (photo taken on the AT in 2005)

I was up to feed Sam at 3:30 this morning, so I figured that should mean she would (although nothing is guaranteed when it comes to her and sleep!) sleep through until at least 6:30. In the end she didn't wake up until 7:10! Hurray for extra morning time :-) But just in case, I was up and out the door at 5:20 for my run this morning. The skies were overcast and moody looking - I kept waiting for the heavens to open up on me as I ran along but they never did. Temps were in the low 70s and with the breeze blowing, it was relatively comfortable out, although muggy. I ran the powerlines out to the church, which I haven't done in a while, and had a nice run.

Saw plenty of catbirds, a few goldfinch, sparrows and robins, and heard the towhees and phoebes but didn't see them. With all the summer greenery, it is much harder at this time of year to actually spot the birds out there! I made one quick stop to eat a few ripe raspberries at the edge of the trail, but otherwise kept moving. The deer flies weren't bad, but I didn't want to give them the chance to catch up with me :-)

However, the highlight of the run was the multitude of wood lilies that I saw near the end of the powerlines. Wow! On this grey morning, their deep orange flowers really stood out in the grassy expanses along the trail. I have never seen so many of them like this. How wonderful!

Finally

Finally got out for a run after two days off. As I think I've mentioned before, I have been struggling a bit to fit my running in, as Sam's morning schedule is still slightly sporadic, and I hate to give up what little time I have with her and run while she is awake. But this morning, I knew I wanted to get a run in no matter what. So, I got up with Sam when she woke up at 6:30, fed her and hung out with her for a 1/2 hour, then handed her off to Ryan for some Daddy time, and headed out the door for a quick run. I got in 3.5 miles on a mix of trails, dirt roads, a bit of pavement and the powerlines. On the dirt roads and powerlines, I had some pesky company - the deer flies were brutal, and a big horde of them followed me for a good part of the run. I tried to pick up the pace in the hopes of outrunning them, but to no avail. As a friend said, either they're getting faster or I'm getting slower, but whichever it is, there is no escaping them at this time of year :-) As I headed back home on the powerlines, I noticed that the deep orange wood lilies are blooming - I spotted six in total. Beautiful!

Bounce Bounce Bounce

The temperature hit 92 degrees here today. That is just too hot. However, I wasn't out running/hiking the Baldface loop like Ryan, Chuck, Jamie, Jim and Erik, so I at least stayed cool inside! Sam and I had a fun day together while Daddy was out torturing himself in the woods with the guys and had a nice road trip to Gorham to visit with Kristen, Rob and Morgan for a few hours this afternoon. I should have gone running after Sam went to bed tonight, but was feeling tired and hungry and unmotivated to go out and run in the 80+ degree heat at 7pm. So instead of reading a running recap, you can watch Sam jump around in her bouncer like a maniac instead :-) Such fun!!

Hot Hot Hot

The "plan" called for me to run 9 miles this morning. Sam woke up at 6:15 to eat, but very nicely went back to bed for an hour. I took this hour to do a few things around the house while it was still quiet, and to sit for a minute or two with my coffee at the computer before she woke back up. Ryan took first shift running today, so Sam and I hung out while he was gone and I attempted to get her to eat breakfast. She appears to take after her dad in that she is just not a breakfast eater. She didn't like the asparagus I'd steamed and pureed up; she didn't want the sweet potatoes; she managed a few bites of the pears, but was happiest when I gave up and put all that aside, giving her her sippy cup of water and some Cheerios to chomp on. She is getting quite good at picking the Cheerios up and actually getting them into her mouth to chew on :-) It's cute to watch!

Sam went down for her nap at 9:50, so it was 10:00 before I headed out the door for my run. The thermometer was reading in the mid-70s and it was sunny, but at least there was a breeze. I decided to try out Ryan's new hand-held, which holds 22 oz, today. My fuel belt is getting old, is stretched out a bit, and at the moment, it's just a little too big for me, so things bounce around a bit more than I'd like, and my hand-held only holds 10 oz. I figured on this warm morning, having 22 oz. of fluids would be a good thing. My assessment after running for 1:18:32 is that that bottle is a bit too heavy for me to want to hold in my hand for that long, but I managed to drink all my Gatorade regardless!

In the shade of the woods, down by the river, with a gentle breeze blowing, it was quite comfortable out. Sure, I was sweating, but it wasn't all that bad. However, in the sun, on the open grassy paths, alone except for the deer flies buzzing my head and shoulders, it was, well, hot. Still, I had a great run and felt really good. I ended up taking one wrong turn on the route, and wound up with 8.25 miles, but on such a warm day, I wasn't going to run around the neighborhood aimlessly for 0.75 miles just to get to 9. I'll try to add on a bit tomorrow to make up for it, but was happy with my time and effort for the miles I did get in. This was the first time in a little while that nothing has hurt, not my left ankle, my hip, nothing. Hurray! Perhaps having a down month has come to some good in the end.

Flora and fauna notes: Saw a small groundhog foraging along the side of the trail down by the river. I stopped to look at him for a while, and he just looked right back. Cute. Noticed that the bunchberries are starting to sport their bunches of red berries, and stopped to eat a few yummy red raspberries in the open grassy sections heading down to the Ravine Trail.

Outside our front door, the lilies are sporting their beautiful buttery yellow flowers, and where they removed the large evergreen tree, a little field of violets has taken up residence. It's very cheerful!

Lilies

In Sam news, she has been having fun the past few days blowing raspberries and waving "hi" and "bye." I love it! :-)

Short and Sweet

When time is short, and let's face it, it often is these days, I head for the loop named the "Suck Loop" by Ryan. It really isn't that bad, but it certainly isn't the most exciting loop around. It's mostly road, with one section on the powerlines and one section through the woods between Highland Green and the high school fields. I can run it in under 25:00, and I'd say it's just slightly shy (like 0.05 shy) of 3 miles.

Both Friday and today, I was out running on this loop. Friday morning I snuck my run in while Sam slept and arrived home just in time to lift her out of the crib when she woke up at 6:45am. This morning I didn't quite get out of bed bright and early, so I headed out at 7:30am. I was feeling guilty about going out this morning, as Ryan has been on daddy duty these past two days, due to daycare being closed and me working, but he convinced me I should go out anyway, and I appreciated that he did. I really need to get some momentum back running-wise, and get the mileage up again. With that in mind, I'm looking forward to a nice 9-mile run on the Cathance trails tomorrow during Sam's morning nap!

Swinging!

Sam swinging at daycare yesterday!

Raspberries, Blueberries and Cheerios

I snuck in a three mile run this evening after putting Sam to bed. There was a gentle breeze blowing, the air felt crisp and dry after all the humidity of last week, and the sun was still warm on my face, even though it was 7pm. I stopped twice along the route because I just couldn't resist - there were beautiful ripe red raspberries to pick along the Highland Green Road, and the blueberries along the powerlines were wonderfully sweet. Yum! It seems mighty early for both of these fruits to be ready for picking, but hey, I won't complain. When I returned home, I felt refreshed - nothing like a good run, even if it is short and sweet, after work to make the day feel complete!

And if you're wondering about the Cheerios part of this blog post, here it is. Ryan shot this cute little movie this evening of Sam eating Cheerios after her dinner tonight. She is really getting the hang of feeding herself, and just can't get enough of them! Ronnie and Gigi have decided they like the Cheerios too, and have taken to sitting nearby like little furry vultures when Sam is eating them, as almost as many make their way onto the floor as into her mouth :-)

Running the Scuffle Course

It was pouring so hard this morning that Ryan asked if I was planning to bring my snorkel gear to Bradbury for my run, but luckily, by the time Sam went down for her nap at 9:45, the skies has closed back up and I was able to head out with just my regular running gear :-)

I realized a few weeks ago that I had not run at Bradbury in a very long time (and looking back at my blog, it appears the last time I ran there was in fact March 23, 2009) and as I did not get the chance to run the Scuffle last year, I really wanted to get in at least one scouting run of the course before the 11th. In fact, when Ryan asked me if I knew the course last night, I realized I had been thinking of the Bruiser route, so I'm glad I got a refresher! Otherwise, I would have been out wandering around in the woods on the wrong course :-) Ha!

Of course despite my desire to get over to Bradbury, with our crazy schedule and with Sam in the mix, it has been hard to figure out exactly when I would have the time to get over to the park to run the route before race day. Lucky for me I have a great hubby who nicely agreed to watch Sam this morning assuming I could get her to go down for her nap. These days she's been taking a pretty decent morning nap, so we gambled that he wouldn't have to do much except keep the monitor on for most of the time I was gone. And thank goodness, she slept for 1:45, so Ryan was able to work for all but 20 minutes of the time I was gone, which worked well for all of us!

I pulled into the lonely parking lot around 10:15, quickly hit the bathrooms and headed across the street. My plan was to try and run pretty hard on the course, in an effort to figure out how fast I might actually be able to run this thing on race day. With all the rain, things were pretty slippery, and there certainly was no shortage of puddles and mud! I'd forgotten how nice the woods were on this side of the park, and also how twisty and turny the single track was. With all the twists and turns, it was hard for me to keep up a good rhythm, but I just tried to run quickly whenever the course allowed, and to pick things up on the wider snowmobile trail sections. I did have to stop at a few intersections, just to confirm that I was keeping on course, but otherwise, I just enjoyed wandering through the woods, splashing through the puddles, running the bridges, maneuvering the corners, and trying to power up and down the hills. I was soaked by the time I finished - it must have been 99.9% humidity out there! - and muddy too. I rinsed off at one of the spiggots, did a few quick stretches and hopped in the car to head home and take back over on Sam duties. I had a great run, and really enjoyed being back on the Bradbury trails! And I'm definitely looking forward to the Scuffle. Should be fun!

I wore the Garmin to see what mileage it would come up with, but at some point, I stopped the timer and thought I had started it back up, only to discover a while later that the time/distance were reading the same. Crap! So, no mileage data or true time data. I was, however, able to download things and at least get my elapsed time (which includes a few stops here and there to make sure I'm on the right route). I was out there today for 1:00:39, which I'm pretty happy with! Hopefully this means I can pick up the pace and run somewhere around 55:00 or so on race day...

Sunday Happy Sunday

What a nice day today! We started off the morning meeting up with Nate, Shannon, Finley and little Charlotte at our favorite breakfast spot, the Broadway Deli, for a yummy meal. We hadn't had a chance to catch up in a while, so it was fun to see them! Charlotte was awake and smiling, and is getting to be a big girl - in fact, she is the same length as Sam, and about 6 months younger - ha :-) I guess Sam really is a tiny one! Sam was such a good little girl while we were in the restaurant. She sat in her highchair, grabbed at Charlotte's hand while I was holding her on my lap next to Sam, smiled at Finley, made friends with the waitresses, and had a grand old time.

When we got home Sam took a 2 1/2 hour nap, during which time both Ryan and I managed to get our runs in. I love this long nap thing! I hope she keeps it up!! I went out first, feeling ever so slightly weighed down by my pancakes, and ran Ryan's 5-mile Homeplace loop. The air was a bit heavy, but it was overcast, so it didn't feel unbearably hot, which was nice. The scent of the pink beach roses and milkweed filled the air as I ran along. I saw my friends the towhees, as well as a number of goldfinch, and I scared up a pretty big doe who was munching on the foliage along the lines after Topsham Crossing. I felt pretty good, and while I'll admit that the tightness in my hip isn't completely gone, it is feeling so much better with the stretching I've been doing of my back and side muscles.

Later in the afternoon, after we all got cleaned up and ate our lunches, we headed over to Cox Pinnacle for a short hike. At 354 feet, this is the highest point in Brunswick, so it was very exciting :-) Actually, it was quite a nice, if short, loop over the summit on the wide, old logging roads. No views from the top, but it was good to be out walking in the woods on a summer afternoon. Of course, I wasn't carrying the child in a backpack, so while I thought it was pleasant, Ryan worked up a sweat :-) And Sam, as always, smiled and laughed and had a jolly good time!

Let's go!

Along the trail

Saturday with Sam

No running today, but I'm OK with it. My hip felt good enough to have run (hurray for lots of site specific stretching!), but I was on Sam duty today, and we were so busy we didn't even have time to get in a B.O.B. run! Ryan was up and out of the house at the crack of dawn to meet up with Blaine and Erin and get over to work for the 'There's A Black Fly In My Eye' 10 miler. I wish I could either have joined them - it's a fun race - or have had the day off on a Saturday that Ryan was home so we all could have hung out together, but hey, what can you do. Instead, I had a Sam day, which isn't so bad :-)

We had lots of fun morning playtime...

Oh hi Mom!

Playing the piano

and breakfast...

I love my Cheerios! (And yes, there is one on my chin...)

Then a 2 1/2 hour nap (!!!), after which we drove over to visit with Mim, Larry, Nancy and Kristen at Susie's house. It was wonderful to sit outside in the shade of the trees, and enjoy the afternoon together. I brought a strawberry/blueberry/raspberry crisp (yum!) purchased at the farmer's market yesterday for us to enjoy, and we had a great time chatting and watching Sam play and laugh and smile for a few hours!

Happy sitting in Mim's lap

Sam was a good girl and took a nap on the way home, which meant she was nice and cheery when Daddy got home at 5:15pm! After her dinner and more playtime, it was time for bath and bed, and for Ryan and I to sit and eat dinner. I know I could have gone running after Sam went to bed, but it was just as nice to simply sit down with Ryan and catch up and relax. Despite not running, I'd say it was a pretty good day :-)

Blueberries

Sam was up at 5am this morning, but luckily went right back to sleep after I fed her. I took that as a sign that I should indeed go out for a short run! I snuck out onto the powerlines to do the 3 mile out-and-back down to Topsham Crossing. The hip felt a bit stiff in the first few steps but loosened up as I ran along, and boy did it feel good to be moving!

It was a gorgeous morning. A light fog lay over the ferns and low shrubs along the powerlines, and although it certainly was light out, the sun itself was just peeking above the trees as I ran through the shadows down by Topsham Crossing. A bullfrog croaked in the small marshy pond. A cardinal sat on the lines calling. A catbird hopped into the path, and the towhees, goldfinch and phoebes were all singing in the background. I stopped to eat a few of the ripe blueberries whose bushes sit in the bright sun all day long, the sweet taste of summer on my tongue as I continued running.

I smiled.

Now this, this is why I run :-)

Why?

I was talking to one of my oldest and bestest friends on the phone last night, and she asked me why in the world I had wanted to run a 50k 7 months after Sam was born. Part of the reason is "why not?" Part of the reason is that I wanted to prove I could (although of course, I didn't, but hey, I tried). But on a deeper level, this is a hard question to answer. Why I run just isn't nicely and neatly summed up in words. And why I want to run long is even more complicated. But, I'd say that the feeling I get when watching this video (Thanks Snowman for bringing it to the surface again!) pretty much sums up the "why?" up for me. Who doesn't want to run after watching this?!



That being said, I am feeling pretty down about my running right now. June has been a bit of a bust, partially because I was recovering from Pineland the first week and then all of us got sick. At the beginning of this week, even though Sam was sick again, I thought I could turn things around and I was all excited to get out and actually run again. Instead, I am taking a few days off because of my hip. Actually, I don't really think it's my hip per say. I think it's a combination of really tight back muscles and a likely pull in one of the outside ab muscles on my left side. But whatever it is, I'm not happy with it. I know I haven't been good about stretching these days, and I also know that I spend a lot of time in odd positions, holding Sam on my hip, and rocking her and hunching over when I'm nursing her. I've spent some time on the foam roller the past few days and that has helped, thank goodness! I don't think I can stand many more days of not running! For my sanity, I plan to get out and run tomorrow morning before work. Hopefully all will feel good, and I'll be able to actually start doing the runs I have outlined in my training log!!