My First Stroller 5K
This post has been a long time coming! I'm so happy to say I finally, finally, finally was able to run a race with my little guy in the running stroller.
It took me way longer to get to this milestone than I ever expected it would.
When I was pregnant, I had big dreams of getting back to running quickly, and either running with the little man or having him be at the finish line of my races. After so many unfortunate setbacks, I finally got to have that moment over the weekend.
We were in Rehoboth for the Seawitch Festival, and the Seashore Striders put on a race every year to coincide with the festival.
I had planned to walk this with the running stroller last year, but the baby ended up melting down, and so I just walked it myself.
But this year, we were both ready to run.
It was a chilly morning, so he got plenty bundled in the stroller, and I wished I hadn't forgotten to pack my ear warmer since there was a pretty steady breeze.
We did packet pick up in the morning, let the little guy run around the playground until about 10 minutes before the race start and then we lined up and took off.
Having never run a race with the stroller before, I started a bit toward the back of the pack. I was trying to be respectful of the other runners and didn't want them to get stuck behind me. Running with the stroller slows my pace down big time.
I didn't have any time goals for this race. I just wanted to enjoy the experience of finally getting to do a race together.
I stuck to the sides of the road where I could and made sure to not get too close to anyone since I didn't want to accidentally nip them in the heel with a stroller tire.
The first mile of the race was a little bit congested, but I still had plenty of room to maneuver even with the big stroller.
I felt mostly good through out the race. It's definitely harder to run with the stroller, but I was just so happy to be out racing again.
It was fun to run along the ocean. We got some really nice views before turning back into some of the neighborhoods to wind our way to the finish.
Little man seemed pretty chill the whole time. In fact, for a while I think he might have fallen asleep.
With just about a half mile to go in the race, I was definitely feel the effort of running with the stroller.
I tried to pick up the pace a tiny bit as the finish line came into view, but a final kick with a big stroller is definitely different than a final kick without.
We crossed the finish line in 32:21, which was good enough for 9th place in my age group.
I was getting a little emotional toward the end of the race. It felt like such a big milestone and accomplishment to finally make it to this day. I'm healthy, he's healthy, and I'm finally back to doing something that I love.
I'm glad I got to share running and racing with my little buddy. I hope to be able to do a lot more of that together in the future.