Pregnancy Weeks 19-21

Top dog!

The Fast and the Furry WIN!, growing bigger and becoming slower, 20 week ultrasound, and a Duluth vacation… a lot happening!

Fast and the Furry 5k:

Mesa and I competed in The Fast and the Furry 5k for the second year and a row, and as usual, the race is the highlight of the year. Truly. Want to see 200+ friendly furry K9s try to run with their owners all at the same time? Want to see everything from pocket sized fluff dogs to Great Danes’s “racing”? Want to chuckle to yourself as you see random chaos on the course? 🙂

Mesa was the only dog still pulling after the 1/2 way mark :). She is such a racer at heart!

Mesa and I continued to defend our undefeated streak! It was a really close one this year – we beat the next dog duo by just 2 seconds (a male). I didn’t want to make winning my goal, since it was super warm that day, but at the 2 mile mark this guy and I were trading off the lead. At the 2.25 mile mark there was a water stop for the dogs, and Mesa couldn’t get enough water. I took an entire water bottle and dumped it over myself as well – it was really warm. She then laid down in the mud puddle next to the dishes and literally tried to swim in it. I saw the guy and dog ahead of us vanish in the distance.

Ahh, well, I thought. Mesa and I could still be female undefeated.

Nate then pulled out the most brilliant move. He biked up ahead of us and just called out once, “C’mon, Mesa!”. She immediately went back into race (pulling) mode. That girl will do anything for Nate, I swear. She’ll drop dead hunting for him, and totally overheat and exhaust herself trying to catch him on bike. It’s pretty awesome to see the bond between them.

The guy ahead of us became closer and closer. Could we actually WIN?!? Oh my gosh, really?

GOOOOOOO, Mesa, I silently screamed!

The final stretch. Mesa has helped me bridge the gap — can we sneak ahead in the next 250m?

Nate wasn’t ahead of us anymore, so it was just Mesa and me vs. guy and his dog. We passed him with 200 meters to go. He begged his dog: “go!”

I am so proud to say that Mesa and I were able to eek out the win. She is such a champ. She slept the rest of the day, so I know she gave it her all. I’m a proud dog mom 🙂

My goal next year? To break 17 again with her at this race :). I can’t wait!!!!

TNC folks!!

Training:

Since it’s been too many weeks to blog details day by day, I’ll just say that things are still going well. I’ve been running almost daily and enjoying it. I can definitely tell I have this “bump” in front of me now, and that it weighs something now!, and can especially feel is going up hills. But, other than being mildly uncomfortable and slow, I feel great!

I still have a lot of heartburn, which generally affects me later in the evening. One night I actually found myself throwing up at 4am because of it, which is unusual. Hope that doesn’t persist.

They say heartburn = a girl, and the more heartburn you have = the more hair she will have? The other wives tale is that if your lower limbs are much warmer than normal, which I’ve definitely had, that it’s a girl.

Thoughts?!? 🙂

20 weeks

Bump!

The biggest thing to note lately is that I have been very unmotivated this week (20 to 21 weeks). Could it be that baby and “training” are so far off? I am not very motivated by the thought of just “staying in shape” – instead, I really need ~~a goal~~ a big goal. Since that’s just so far off, I wonder if that isn’t playing into things.

Nate suggested that I just force myself to get out and do something for at least 30+ mins a day. I thought about that, but then told him that sounded terrible. I go back and forth between allowing myself to just take some time off and just forcing myself out the door a little everyday. I tell myself doing things now is better since I will likely be super uncomfortable in 1-2 more months…

I can tell I’m not nearly as muscular overall as well, which bothers me somewhat, but then I decide not to care. I sometimes tell myself I should lift more frequently (I like to lift! Why am I not hitting up the gym often?!?), but then decide I don’t really want to. *Sigh*

21 weeks – a little bigger bump!

No hiding this now :). Mesa just HAD to be in the picture.

We had our 20 week ultra sound last week, which was a lot of fun. We’re not finding out the gender so the appointment isn’t super exciting, but they do check to make sure baby has all of the organs and limbs it is supposed to and also take a bunch of measurements.

From those measurements, I think baby is taking after me:
Rib cage: 50th percentile. I have always had a big rib cage. Room for big lungs?
Femur length: 22nd percentile. Sorry, baby.
Head: 44th percentile. Hmm… big heads run in Nate’s family. This might make birth a little more difficult…
Overall: 34th percentile. Perfect!

Life Updates:
A mini-vacation to Duluth!

I won a 2 night hotel stay in Duluth last year. Of course, it needed to be used M-Th, but that was a good excuse to book an early weekend.

Duluth has a special place in my heart. It was where I first started dreaming about the Trials after a 1:24 1/2 marathon. It’s where I snagged my qualifier two years later (2:44 — still can’t believe it!).

It’s where Nate and I celebrated our first anniversary, hiked the North Shore another year, and where we returned for this year’s mini vacation.

Grandma’s Marathon finish line. This made me MISS racing sooo much. I can’t describe the emotion that came to me when seeing the course and then the finish line. I love Grandma’s Marathon, and it has treated me so well in years past. I might make this my marathon debut post-baby.

Stopping for a picture along Lake Superior!

Pier by the Lift Bridge

Just for fun, here is us on our 2006 Trip to Duluth for our 1st wedding anniversary. We look so young!

An awesome time, all around! 🙂

We just had to visit Grandma’s Bar in Duluth. 1/2 price beers during happy hour = a Fulton Sweet Child of Vine 22 oz. for about $3.50. Awesome. Wish I could have joined in on the fun/deal 🙂

Instead, I indulged in the water/Crystal Light in my UCAN bottle. They had an awesome fettuccine dish that hit the spot.

Our last evening in Duluth we decided to stop by Sammy’s. There was a $2 pitcher special with a large pizza, so of course we had to order that! Except… that meant Nate was obligated to drink the pitcher :).

He drank about 3/4 of it :). Keep in mind that the pitcher cost $2 and a glass was $2.75. Need you do math? I think not. The pizza was greasy and awesome. I’m glad I’m pregnant and not as worried about training and my weight now 🙂

We headed home Friday night, which gave me enough time to prep for a 1/2 marathon race “sim” with some local TNC folks.

It was pouring for most of the workout, but they were still all smiles. What a great group.

I was all set to be “official” with a table, chair, and my banner to hand out water at the 1/2 way mark, but then decided the car was much more comfortable. Here’s my “official” water stop instead. Worked great, and I stayed relatively dry!