I’m not generally a sappy person, so please my excuse my lack of gushiness about my first Mother’s Day. Don’t misconstrue lack of gushiness with lack of appreciation because I am very grateful.
I knew what I wanted to do for my first Mother’s Day for a long time. That’s because there is a stroller race hosted by the local running group, Hoboken Harriers, as a part of their larger 5-mile race every Mother’s Day. I ran the 5-mile race many, many years ago and when they first introduced the stroller race, I knew I wanted to run it one day. So naturally I was super excited that Charlotte is old enough to go stroller running with me this Mother’s Day.
Instead of taking our time on Sunday morning, we quickly ate a light breakfast and got ready for the race. Charlotte and I ran down to the start (a little over 1.5 miles away) with the stroller and Josh met us down there on bike. He picked up our bibs and was waiting for us at the start. We got there just in time to pin on the bibs. It was a casual race, only 3 strollers at the start (and it looked like there may have been 2 more that started late). I was fumbling with my watch as I wanted to “Garmin-record” my first stroller run but didn’t manage to do so before the first runner took off and my inner competitor had no choice but to sprint after her!
The race was a 1.5 mile out and back. Unfortunately the streets were not closed for this and there were a couple of points we had to be very careful to make sure we were not running too close to moving cars. Our stroller runs are generally very easy ones and we go at whatever pace I can do that day with stops at the playground and dog run (which reminds me that I have been meaning to write a post on getting started with stroller running). Needless to say, my newbie-stroller-running-self was not prepared for sprinting the race. My body was not terribly happy with me especially after having completed the Citi Field Sprint Spartan the day before (recap on this to come). We finished the race in 2nd (out of 3 or 5)! It wasn’t officially timed and since I was fumbling with my watch, I don’t have an exact record of time. My guess based on the splits from our whole run (to/from race and race) on Sunday is that we were running around 8:30-8:45 min/mile for a total time of roughly 13 minutes or so. Regardless of time, it was so fun to take part in our first stroller race and it seemed like Charlotte enjoyed herself as well. What a great way to celebrate my first Mother’s Day!
The rest of the day we spent relaxing and eating a lot of food! Eating, in my opinion, is the next best way to celebrate any day after a run!
