Running with my baby in my belly!

Sunday was a beautiful day in Washington, D.C. The sun was out, the cherry blossoms were abloom. It was a perfect day for a long walk (er, jog) around the city!

So with my 19-week-old babe safely packed away in my now-very-snug yoga pants, I donned my cutest Lululemon gear and took off for the National Mall for the annual Cherry Blossom Ten Mile race.

I met a friend at the start and we took off at 8 a.m., running what my Garmin watch said was a solid 10:50 minutes-per-mile pace.

To put that in perspective, that pace is slower than my personal best 9:36 min/mile pace that I set in last year's Army Ten-Miler. It's also slower than the 10:08 min/mile pace that I set on my first Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in 2007.

Still, I wasn't shooting for a 10:50 min/mile finish. So, after two miles, I told my friend to go on without me. I was going to take it slower. She surged on ahead and ended up making her goal of maintaining at 10:30 min/mile pace and finishing under two hours!

Not me. Not this year. I was not running for time. I was running to enjoy the day and introduce the babe in my belly the joys of running. I have heard that babies fall asleep to the rhythmetic motion of your gate and that the movement can be soothing to them.

Of course, I checked with my doctor before running. She said that as long as I was a runner before I became pregnant, I could safely continue. She warned that my joints might be looser and I might get to a point when it would be too uncomfortable for me to run. But until then, it's healthy for me and the baby to get regular exercise.

If you want to know more about running while pregnant, here are several articles that I would recommend: This one from Runner's World, this one about Running and Pregnancy, this one from BabyFit.com and this one from BabyCenter.com.

And as you can see from the photos above and below, I'm not the only one who runs while pregnant!

Back to the race at hand.

I knew that runners had 2 hours and 20 minutes to finish the race. That means that as long as maintained a pace better than 14 minutes a mile, I'd be golden. Walking usually takes about 15-16 minutes per mile, so I knew that I couldn't walk the whole thing. But I could run very, very slowly and take frequent breaks and still finish before the cut-off.

And if I didn't feel like finishing? Well, I had $20 in my pocket to pay for a cab. And I carried my cell phone with me too (at DH's request).

So I took my time and plodded along. I stopped at all the water stops to make sure I was properly hydrated. I even stopped around Mile 7 to dart into a porta potty! I walked some. I jogged some. I found myself "running" with a back-of-the-pack crew that I don't usually see in races.

In the end, I finished the race in 2:04:31 with an average pace of 12:28 minutes/mile. I met up with my friends afterward and one of them teased me that I had not even broken a sweat! It was true. I was running so slowly that my cheeks weren't even red!

I am looking forward to running this race again next year, or maybe doing another marathon. (I ran my first marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon, last October before TTCing.)

I hope that running will help me get back into shape after baby bean arrives. I especially can't wait to get a jogging stroller so I can take Bean along with me on training runs!

The race reminded me that, as with everything, having a baby changes things.

As I ran, I saw two little kids along the route holding up a homemade sign that said "Run Mommy Run." I couldn't help smiling. I hope someday that my child will look forward to coming out to cheer me on.

I also saw a woman running with her young daughter. It reminded me of the eight-mile Great Aloha Run in Honolulu that my dad took me on when I was seven and eight years old. As I ran past them, I smiled to myself wondering if my baby will one day run a race with me.

Because in the end, running a race, like life, is more about the experience along the way than the finish line. I hope my baby can someday enjoy and appreciate both!