I had a goal to run the St. Patrick's Day 5K this past weekend. It was exactly 4 weeks after the birth of our second child, and I thought this would be my first race, getting back to normal. But, running has been tough this time. Maybe it's my older body or my 10 lb. 10 oz. baby, but more likely, it is my love of soaking up every little bit of baby time I can get. Because, this is it. This is our last little baby.

I'm not disappointed that I didn't run the race. I am a bit overwhelmed that I can't really run. It's like starting all over again, and I don't remember it being this hard after my first baby. However, Saturday was more than an unattained goal. I did run 3.8 miles. It was the furthest distance that I have run in awhile. Only 2.5 of it was continuous, but up until that point I had only run one or two blocks at a time.

Moving forward, Duane and I are revisiting our goals from after we had our first baby. We will, again, run a half marathon-a-month. Some of these races we have run before (and the reports can be found on the blog Run, Raft, Love Colorado if you are interested in reading them), and some of the races will be new experiences. We will start in July (well, June if you count the Garden of the Gods 10 mile) and end the following year.

Here is our race schedule:

June: Garden of the Gods 10 Mile

July: Half on the 4th Half Marathon

August: Rocky Mountain Half Marathon

September: ADTM Half Marathon or Pony Express

October: Xterra Marathon of Trail Races Half Marathon

November: Rim Rock Marathon Relay

December: Rock Canyon Half Marathon

January: TBD

February: Super Half Marathon

March: Run Through Time Half Marathon

April: Platte River Half Marathon

May: Fear the Deer Half Marathon

We will probably do a lot of small, local races in between. I have no personal performance expectations, because if I've learned anything in the past year, it's to not take this running stuff so seriously. I just want to run, have fun, and hopefully fit into my clothes again someday.