Melissa's Road Race

This past weekend I went to Banff with my daughter, husband, sister, and friend for the Melissa’s Road Race. Originally, I had signed up for the half marathon (21.1km), but I switched to the 10km. At first, I was a bit disappointed because I really hoped to be back up to this distance by 4 months postpartum, but I have to remember to be kind to my body and remember how strong and capable it is.

Our first night, we stayed at my sister’s house to help break up our drive on the way there. Banff is a six hour drive from our hometown, and we were only going for a short weekend to do the race. This was a ROUGH night for us. Our little one had started biting during breastfeeding (more about that in another post later on!) so I was really trying to get her to take a bottle so that I could have some relief. I was up literally every hour that night, having to breastfeed her, as she didn't get enough to eat during the day! I was starting to get worried because I knew if I had that little sleep two nights in a row I would really struggle to complete my run!

The rest of our drive to Banff the next day was good, she slept most of the way! Did I get to nap, though? Absolutely not, ugh! At least one of us was getting some sleep. Once we arrived for our Banff weekend, we had to wait a few hours to check into our place. We walked around in Canmore, stopped at a local coffee shop, Blondies, and stopped at a brewery for a beer and some ice cream. We walked around a bit more, then finally checked into our place, had a nap, and cooked some dinner.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/e91752_20a2eed40f804e82b0907d6b3b8c2c5f/720p/mp4/file.mp4

The next morning was run day for Melissa’s Road Race. I was excited but nervous about it, because I knew we were running up a huge hill, but also it was my first organized run post-baby. Most peoples’ pre-run prep consists of stretching and warming up, but mine consisted of feeding my girl, waiting in line forever for the bathroom, then running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off to find my sister again (who was watching baby while my husband and I ran) to get my race bib. I ended up starting 7 minutes late and I was STRESSED. There’s a cut off time they call and after that you’re not allowed to go anymore, so as I was trying to find my sister for my bib I was so concerned that I wasn’t going to make that time! I honestly felt like I was going to cry if I didn’t get to do this run that I’d been looking forward to for so long. I did get to do it though, so I’m happy about that.

About 7km into the run.

This was a tough run for me though. After not having much sleep, then stressing at the start line, I tried my best to not let these things affect my run. About 3km into the run, I started getting a massive cramp, worse than I’d ever had before! I had to walk a lot more than I had anticipated, but I am trying my best to focus on the positive and that I finished Melissa’s Road Race for the second year in a row. When I was having a tough time during the run, I thought of my daughter and how I want to show her how strong and capable we are and to do your best in things you set your mind to. It was all worth it when she was waiting at the finish line for me with my medal!

My husband did the 5km run, and was done before I was done the 10km, so he was holding our girl at the finish line. He told me that literally as I was turning the corner to cross the finish line, she had a massive poop so he waited to change her because he knew I wanted her to watch me cross. So, the life of a mother. You finish your run and are exhausted, then literally one minute later you are working together with your husband to change not only your little one’s diaper but also her cute Nike outfit that you picked out for her just to get some cute run pics in.

Little one at the finish line with my medal for me! (P.S. You can even see her poo-splosion).

While the run was more difficult for me this year than I had anticipated, I am still glad that I got it done. I am thankful for my parents and husband for watching baby while I went out for training runs, and my sister for coming all the way to Banff with us just so we could run in the Melissa’s Road Race again!

Remember, mama, although your life may look different now, still take time for you so that you can be refreshed and be an amazing parent to your little(s)!