Saturday, February 18, 2012

Losing my sense of normal

I have been regularly following the blogs of so many running pregnant women, running moms and (my favorite) running, pregnant moms that I am beginning to wonder if I have lost my sense of normal. It now seems normal, typical, average, standard to:

~get up at 5 am to run
~run at 3 am after nursing and during a bought of insomnia
~run a 60 km week while in one's third trimester (actually in all honesty, 60 km/week seems low)
~run, puke, continue running (a la Bob Kempainen - 1996 Marathon trials)
~run the morning of giving birth
~run within 72 hours of giving birth (haven't done this myself but my point is it just doesn't seem that weird or extreme)

So, without much thought, I signed up for a 5 km race tomorrow (on which day I will be 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant and T-10 days to my due date) and it just didn't seem that weird or extreme. The only part that gives me (very slight) pause for thought is that this race is a little far from home, approximately 40 minutes by car. I'm not worried about "competing" while so heavily pregnant because I am, obviously, not going there to compete but rather to get out in the crisp air, see people I haven't seen in awhile and probably won't see for awhile and just drink in the atmosphere of this race which is the first of the year in the series I usually run. The physical demands of running this "race" will be no different than the demands of the "work-outs" I have been doing in the gym lately. My OB says I am not dilated, the baby has not descended, there is "no reason to restrict activity" (and yes, she does know what my activity consists of).

Have I lost my sense of normal?

10 comments:

  1. All sounds completely normal to me, but I'm probably not the best example as someone who ran a marathon and multiple halfs pregnant! I think normal is whatever makes us feel good and complete :-) Yes I have friends who call me crazy, but I would call the countless hours of TV others watch crazy!.
    Have fun at the race and good luck with the last 10 days, so close.

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  2. personally I love your sense of "normal" pregnancy activity - enjoy your run tomorrow - I can't believe it's T minus 2 weeks!!! Best wishes.

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  3. Your pregnant jogging tomorrow is going to frustrate a lot of people who finish behind you! ;) Awesome.

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  4. One piece of advice: never worry about normal!!

    Good luck in your race. Do what makes you the happy, wonderful woman you are.

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  5. Wait... Bob Kempainen was pregnant? Now I really feel bad about his kicking my ass in race after race.

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  6. And... how did it go :). I now gather you didn't go into labor.

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  7. I am not sure I feel comfortable with the notion of "normal"... I'd rather go with that of doing what you feel comfortable with... Sure, for most people, running 60+ kms a week when 38 week pregnant is not normal, but as long as your body AND your head as ok with it, who cares. They should not, and you should not.
    I certainly could not run that much these days (even if I am 4 weeks behind you), but every pregnant woman is different!

    The puking worries me a bit more though... why do you think that is? Again, if you don't feel this is something you should worry about, then I guess it is ok...

    Congrats for yestertday's race, and god luck for those last few days!

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