the life of a mother runner

I was so desperate to run this morning that I made my kids go outside to play in the front yard while I ran up and down the sidewalk.

Over. and. over. again.

For about a mile and a half.

I had to stop once to find the sidewalk chalk after my daughter got bored following me on her plasma car.

And then I had to stop to take the clothes out of the dryer and put a new load in the washer. 

Not to mention the numerous drive by (or run by) comments to my son, "NO! Don't hit the ball near the house! Put that bat down! Pick up that plastic bag! Put it in the garage! The garage! THE GARAGE! oh for goodness sake."

Multi-tasking at it's finest.

This, my friends, is the life of a mother runner.

previous post: fall marathoning at it's finest

My first DNS

I was supposed to run a marathon today.

Yesterday, my family & I drove to Columbia, SC. We picked up my bib, checked into the hotel, and went to bed.

Then at 11:30 p.m., despite two sound machines and a running air conditioner, I heard a noise. A low, wheezy, croupy breath.

I got up out of bed and stood near the bed of the my youngest child. The child who earlier that day was PERFECTLY FINE at his one year wellness appointment.

He started to cry and I started to panic.

I have never in my six years as a mother been as scared as I was last night. The more he cried, the worse his breathing became. I could not calm him down. I was five seconds from jumping in the car and taking him to the emergency room.

Thankfully, after about an hour and a consultation with the wonderful pediatric nurse who basically talked me off the cliff, he sounded much better. After some talking, Seth & I decided that we should go home. My kids are notoriously poor sleepers when they're not in their own beds. I knew if we stayed at the hotel, he would be up every hour on the hour and the chances of getting any sleep was nil. If we went home, we could give him his medicine... OH did I mention I have extra doses of his medicine which I usually bring with us but I didn't this time because WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT HE WOULD DEVELOP CROUP IN THE 12 HOURS WE WERE AWAY FROM HOME?!?!

So everyone got up, we packed up, and headed home. At 4:30 a.m., I laid my head on my own pillow. 3 hours later, the Run Hard Marathon started without me.

I'm disappointed and a little sad that I wasn't able to qualify for the Marathon Maniacs but such is life. I may be a runner but I'm a mother first and foremost. There will be other races but I only have one G.