hello

So I've just found out that my blog is still up and running and that i for once actually remembered my password. Looks like i haven't blogged since around the time i found out i was pregnant. I'm not sure why that was - maybe because this is a trianing blog and I didn't feel I would have any training to blog about. I wasn't feeling really very well for most of the first trimester - and I guess I didn't want my blog to get even whinier that it probably already is. But now that I am 20 days away from my due date I wish i would have blogged - wish I could have gone back and read what i was thinking and feeling during all these times. I had no idea that I would become friends with jen and sara and that because of them I would learn to actually enjoy swimming, that i would consider 3 miles with a friend a very satisfying workout, that I would start doing yoga and that I would discover that apple cinnamon french toast is one of the best things ever!
I'm so anxious right now - I keep telling Steve that I will probably never go into labor - yet at the same time i'm very nervous about the whole ordeal. Let's face it - this whole process is going to hurt... a lot. Work continues to stress me out - but thanks to good friends that take me to yoga and swimming I'm surviving. And I have to give special thanks for having one of the best husbands on the planet. At times I have been downright evil over trivial things like cleaning the stove top or scrubbing the toilets. Add to this his stressful job, training for a marathon and oh adding 3 bedrooms and a bathroom on to our house that needs to be finished before this little one arrives - and it's a wonder he has any sanity left. I hope he knows how much I appreciate him - and that I apologize in advance for the evil things I will say and do while in labor.
Jen and I are signed up to run the 5k "to catch a leprechaun" race this weekend. I had a dream that i had the baby and couldn't do the race. It got me thinking what races and stuff i accomplished during this pregnancy...

charlevoix marathon: 95% chance that the baby was on board for this race.... since i'll never be sure - i'm going to go ahead and say she was. Steve had been injured and was just given the go ahead to run/walk - so we did exactly that. It was beautiful there in upper michigan (not the peninsula) It took us a long time to finish the race - but it was a good time. Steve was tired/goofy enough that he started singing around mile 20. He was also loopy enough that he agreed to re-run through areas so I could get a better picture of him.

Muddy Paws 10 miler : Was feeling a little off this day - didn't know i was prego yet - ran a p.r. though

Put-n-bay 5k: My brother-in-law and family were in town from China. Ran the race with Steve and Lance. I thought we were all just running together - steve decided to go into a dead sprint at the end and kick my butt.... i'll pay him back for that one - i promise! Afterwards we ran another 7 miles to get a good ten miles in.

Marine Corp Marathon: someone by the name of steve decided that at around 20 weeks prego I should not participate in the marine corp marathon. grr. Deciding it was probably for the best - I put on my spectator hat and decided to run steve in from mile 20. I started my garmin when the race started so that I would be able to have a better idea of when steve would be at certain mile points. I was also curious how many miles I would cover that day - especially since i think that we probably walked over a mile to get to the start. Long story short - by the time we got back to the hotel - my garmin had registered 17 miles - add the mile before i started it - i'm 18.... I so could have finished that race. Turns out that according the results - i did in fact complete the entire marathon... steve wore my race number and chip accidently... which would explain why i wasn't getting any text alerts as to where he was. I told him - this means i'll have to run a marathon in virginia under his name - so he can get credit for that state in our goal to run in all 50.

Turkey Trot: Ran with Steve, Jen, Matt, and Matt's sister. This was a fun run - I must say I didn't like the way they changed the course this year - it wasn't real pretty and I was really counting on a port o pot stop by the muni lot. It's amazing how being prego makes you need to pee just about every mile and a half.

Jingle Bell Run: this was a ton of fun - there were 10 ladies who ran this and went out for pancakes afterwards - 5 of the 10 were expecting! We even wore signs that said "running for two and running for pancakes" or something along those lines.

Tri-Club Swim Challenge: As I've mentioned before - i am not a very good swimmer - nor do i enjoy swimming - but since running has gotten more and more uncomfortable i've gotten to the point where I swim 3 days a week. At first I would try for 800 yards - sad i know and slowly it has increased... never quite got to a mile. I've only swam a mile once or twice - and that was several years ago now. However - swimming with jen I seem to be improving - she says i'm the only pregnant person that gets better as I get further along in this pregnancy. So one day jen sends me an email asking if I want to do the 25 x 100's challenge. Since breakfast afterwards was involved - i was in. We took it in small chunks and we did it. That's the furthest i've ever swam!

So what's in store for after Baby Smith's arrival? Well - the jogging stroller is ready and waiting to get out on the roads. Since i'm much better at swimming than i use to be - i think at least a sprint triathlon is in my future this summer... and I want to get in at least 2 marathons before I start baking baby smith #2. I still want to qualify for boston. so i'm hoping to do a fall marathon just to get back into training mode - check off another state and just finish in whatever time. Then in the spring I want to qualify for boston....

i think perhaps i'll start blogging again - it's going to be quite a journey i'm sure!