This past Saturday morning I met my running buddy for our regular Saturday morning long run. We had planned to run 10, and as with any summer run, we planned on stopping a few times for water. When we left at 6:30 it was already 80 degrees with high humidity. I felt fine. We stopped for water at mile 2.5, mile 5 and mile 7.5. Even with the temperature rising, I really felt okay until mile 9. Around 9.5 I told Kem I needed to walk it in. Walking the last half mile helped and when we finished, I drank a huge glass of water but I knew I was exhausted. Even my favorite smoothie didn’t help. The temperature was over 100 degrees and I knew running that morning in the heat was probably a very bad decision. Later that morning I went to WalMart for groceries. All that walking only made things worse. My lower abdomen was a little achy and then my lower back satred to hurt. I was feeling really scared so I called my running friend. Her husband is a doctor and he asked me some questions. He advised me to lay down the rest of the afternoon and drink a lot of water and Gatorade so I did. By Saturday night I was much better.

I did not run at all Sunday or Monday. I have been telling myself that running has been good exercise for me and the baby. This Saturday I crossed the line and I think it was more dangerous than anything else. I don’t know why but I have had the Half Marathon in October as a far off goal. My crazy plan was to run/ walk it. Today I made the decision NOT to run anything over 5 miles for the remainder of the pregnancy. So obviously this rules out running the Half. I have many, many more races left to run the rest of my life. I only have 5 more months to carry a child inside me. My baby comes first. His health comes first. While running 10-13 miles may be perfectly safe and I probably could do it just fine it is NOT a risk I am willing to take. Especially in this heat. So this morning I only did 2 and made myself feel good about it.

So… that is where I am with running. I wish I could bottle up all my running energy and motivation for after the baby is born. I know I’m going to need it when it comes time to get back into shape. But, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. That seems so far away right now!

~Runner Mom 🙂