Race Report: Team Triplet fools competitors

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Rich and I ran a local 5K this past weekend. With the girls. Well, Rich ran while pushing the girls in the triple jogging stroller while I ran in front of or next to them. I have been back running for three months now and this was my first race!

I have been running the race route for training and that was the route I ran last Saturday with Em in the single jogging stroller. What I didn't post last weekend was that I ran that route alone on Sunday and finished in 29:32. I can be a bit competitive with myself and I really, really, really wanted to finish this race in under 30 minutes.

Although I had been running the route, I wasn't starting where the beginning of the race would start. So for my practice runs, the hard, hilly mile was in the middle while for the race, it is the last mile. Rich and I debated on whether or not to conserve energy at the beginning to save for the hard mile. I was afraid of running too slow at the beginning and not being able to make up that time at the end.

Rich and I also discussed time goals. He told me that I should have two goals: one that is attainable and one that is a stretch. I told him that I wanted to finish in under 30 minutes (I did it once so it should be attainable) and my stretch goal would be to finish in under 29 minutes. I guess it doesn't work that way because you should have seen the look he gave me!

Now onto race day....

Here's where I say that I honestly don't know how celebrities do it. I hate having people stare at me and my family or listening to them talk about me as I walk by. When we arrived (a few minutes later than we wanted to, of course), Rich put the stroller back together



and then went off to grab our race numbers while I loaded the girls into the stroller. Well, I look over and there's an older man in the parking lot staring at me.

I looked back like ten times and there he was, staring at me. I assume that he was looking at me in my running skirt loading three munchkins into the stroller thinking that there was no way that we were serious runners. Either that or I looked so awesome, he couldn't keep his eyes off of me. (For all you serious readers, that was a joke.)

This is a very small race but the start area was a bit crowded due the finish of the walkers, who start an hour before the runners. There I was pushing the girls trying to find Rich and I kept hearing people talking about me behind my back. Okay, so some of the comments are very common and I hear them over and over. "Look at that!" and "They are so cute!" But when I heard, "She is going to run while pushing them!!" I became a little annoyed because I wasn't going to run while pushing them. If you want to know, just ask. I really don't mind talking to people.



We started off in last place again but easily passed a bunch of people right there in the parking lot before we hit the street. I should have made my attainable goal to not finish in last place. That would have been easy to meet.

Here's what the first two miles looked like:

Mile 1 - 9:15 pace

Mile 2 - 9:40 pace

Our official finish time was 29:20!

And if I hadn't been about to vomit, we probably could have pulled in at under 29 minutes. I need to add that with this race, there are no chips just people with clipboards so I honestly believe that our time was a few seconds less. And believe me, a few seconds matter! Well, to my competitive mind it does.

Now, there is a bit of a funny story to go along with this. We passed a couple running with an infant (maybe 9 months old) in a jogging stroller about a quarter of a mile into the race. We acknowledged each other seeing as we were both running families and I added that they had an unfair advantage because they could switch off whereas I wasn't going to attempt to push the triple jogger. They ended up passing us fairly quickly at a bend in the road due to positioning.

We stayed right on their heels until the last mile and then I moved into position to pass. The mom had been pushing the baby since they passed us with her husband running slightly ahead of her. She was slowing down so I moved up and was running along side of her making sure that if I passed her, it would be for good. We were only allowed one lane of the road and with two strollers, it wouldn't have been fair to pass her and then have her turn around to pass us.

Just as I was about to make my move, the husband calls out, "Do you want me to take that?" And he did! He grabbed that jogging stroller and took off running, which allowed her to take off running and ruined my master plan of passing them while calling out, "I laugh at your one baby." (Please note that I am being extremely sarcastic in saying this but it was funny to think it.)

So we did have a little bit of competition as I have a feeling that the husband was not about to let us beat them. And they only clocked in 20 seconds before us too. Not too shabby.

And here's where I show off my running skirt, which I love.

Allie and Anna crack me up in these pictures.