When are you going to stop?

Ever since I first told people about my pregnancy, there were plenty of comments to the effect of ‘well you’ll not be doing all the running now’ which have been met with a polite explanation as to how I would be, only less than before and only if I felt OK doing so. I’ve recently been asked the title question a few times, even by friends in the running club and my true hope is that I won’t have to stop at all. However slowly and gently I do it, I hope to be able to continue for a while yet.

Parkrun Perks 

My pace and mileage have fallen again since my last blog. I’m 25 weeks pregnant now (about six months) and pleasingly round about the belly. Despite swearing off racing, I decided to give my local Parkrun inGlossop a try a couple of weeks ago. Now, I know they are not races, but show me a person who doesn’t line up at a parkrun wondering how many of the other participants they’ll finish ahead of. My first attempt resulted in a time of 23.30 for the 5k course. Having never run this course before I can’t say how much slower that is compared to a ‘normal’ me, but I think somewhere about 3 minutes, a minute per mile slower. I was the third female finisher which made me feel good about my ability and put a smile on my face at the end of what had been an exhausting week of work and socialising. 

I've started to think about people's perception of how much running is a lot of running, and I realise that to many people who are not fanatical runners like me, what I do now is a quite challenging level of activity, for example running non-stop for 45 minutes. So I also take comfort from that. It does get hard when I read about the events my fellrunning buddies are posting about on social media - the ups, the downs, the bogs and clouds and pie and peas, I do get a pang of envy but then I remember that I am a lucky lady who's still able to enjoy her hobby whilst she bakes a whole new human person. 

Back into the fray at XC

At the parkrun, my club captain asked if I would be able to come to the next Cross Country fixture as they were short of ladies for our team. I ran in the Manchester Cross Country League last year for the very same reason – to support our ladies team who are led by some very rapid runners. She let me know that she understood that I wouldn’t be running fast and all that was required would be to complete the course and count towards the team, so that we wouldn’t slip too far down the league table. Naturally, I accepted. My club are like family, they’ve inspired and supported me in so many events and adventures and I really enjoy being able to support them back, however humble my role.

I woke on the morning feeling heavy, and worrying.  I’d run a few times in the week preceding, and I’d had a pretty rough time the week before on a club run where I just felt drained and unable to keep up on anything with a gradient. I even resorted to posting a picture of myself in my kit on our club Facebook page, to gain some confidence from the ‘like’s. I know - it’s a dirty, needy tactic, but it worked.  

Nervous face at home - first time with this kit on for a while! 

By the time we got changed and ready and I’d had a chat with some of the other female competitors who were impressed by the bump, I felt more springy and ready to run round the course.

The Glossopdale Ladies Team preparing for the off . Photo courtesy Duncan Johnson

It was a typical course taking in water and mud-logged park fields, a short twisty section through woods and some dirt paths. Thankfully no uphill to speak of, hooray! I can honestly say that the runner who called out ‘pregnant lady, you’re doing amazing’ as I passed her, made my entire week. I ran round steadily, sticking to my rule that if I began to feel at all breathless, it was time to ease off the gas for the sake of my passenger.

There is definitely a part of me who wanted to be there to send a message to the younger runners: ‘you can do it whilst pregnant’. It’s something I’d always wondered about since taking up running seriously, and the runners with families who I asked directly about running in pregnancy all said the same thing – you can do it. It’s not one of those topics everyone gets the chance to bring up and so I thought, bring the bump out and show them J

taking it steady with the bump. Photo courtesy Duncan Johnson