6 months and 13.1 miles

Elliot turned 6 months yesterday. Amazing. He's still more adorable each and every day. As is customary for this age, we gave him a taste of something other than boobmilk-- this morning we gave him pureed sweet potato. He seemed to love it. He didn't make much of a mess and actually reached to Ben, asking for more. I guess he's an eater, like his mom!

It just happened that this year's March Madness Half fell on this milestone. Last year I ran it 14 weeks pregnant and was freaked out about pushing too hard. This year I ran it way under-trained and was really just not into it. So much so that when the alarm went off at 6am it took 20 minutes of debate and then convincing to even leave the house. I forgot my garmin, didn't bring any gels, sort of just went.

Naturally, we got there late.

Thankfully Julie and Gerrerd were already there and could collect my packet before they closed pickup. I thought to myself in the car that now that I need to feed Elliot before I can start one of these events, I really need to get there a little earlier. The school at the start was just too cacophonous and Elliot was too distracted to eat anyway. When I had to leave him to head to the start I cried. What kind of terrible mom leaves her son hungry to go running? I'm a little crazy sometimes.

I ran completely unfettered - no headphones, no garmin, no watch, no water bottle, no nutrition, nothing. And it was just fine. Julie's dad Tom has a bum knee and decided to run with my slow self to try to avoid its ire, so I had a buddy for the first 7 miles. It started raining at mile 5. At mile 8, it was all out pouring-- plus lightning! I was underdressed in just knickers and a smartwool top and my hands were pruney and freezing. My shoes were waterlogged and with each stride I could hear the slosh-slosh of the buckets of water they held. Fuuun. Either way, I ran the whole thing, up every hill, with just a few paces of walking at the water stations. Yay for that. I beat last year's time by just 2 minutes though. I'd bet the weather made me a bit slower, for sure. Either way, it was no problem to finish it, and I'm hoping to shave at least 3 more minutes off in Indy.