Who You Gonna Call?

A couple of weeks ago, it hit me. I may look like Supermom. I may even act like Supermom. However, being Supermom is hard work and, I was coming apart at the seams. There’s only one thing to do in times like those: call yer Mudder. And that’s exactly what I did.

At the moment, I have a beautiful 11 month old (Happy Eleven Month Birthday, Iain!) baby, which means a first birthday to plan. I am the main organiser for a family reunion to be held on the 12 and 13th of July for a fairly large family (one side of mine = ~ 60 people). I have also decided to run a half-marathon in the fall which means I have to, um, train. Not to mention I live on a street where the retirees are in competition to see who can have the trimmest lawn and most weeded garden and DH is working later and later. Yep, I cracked. I called Mudder and Fadder in tears and cried “Help!”

They are too good - they arrived on Monday. So far, Mudder has Iain charmed and Fadder has the lawn mowed and (his current pet project) the seats for his handmade cedar strip canoe drying in our garage. I just love these people.

In preparation for the half-marathon, last week was week one of 18 (I get two extra weeks before starting the 16 week training from John Stanton’s Running: Start to Finish book, which is the same program I followed with a Running Room clinic in Kanata when I ran the National Capital Half-Marathon in 2005). I managed to get out for a run once. That’s 100% better than the six weeks previous but not good enough to start counting miles for the half-marathon. However, it did turn out to be quite the run.

I have mentioned that a friend of mine has a jogging stroller that I can borrow. She’s a sweetie, too. She keeps calling me to let me know when it’s available – how cool is that?!? Anyways, we picked a suitable time and afternoon. It’s unfortunate that it was a really hot day but that’s going to happen in the summer months (I’m a bit allergic to heat). I beat it, in my running gear and with Iain in the stroller, to my friend’s house, which is about a kilometre away. I then switched Iain into the jogging stroller and, with some preparation, managed to get on the road. Earlier in the day, I’d looked at the running book and decided, “Yeah, I should probably run 6 K.” I mentioned this to DH and he laughed at me.

“Start at 2K. You’ve never run with a jogging stroller before and you’re probably going to feel it.”

I have three little words to describe my 2.5K running with a jogging stroller experience. Oh. My. God. I ran less than 3K and was puffing the whole way. I haven’t been that out of breath since, since, since I was in labour. I’m not kidding. I felt like my head was going to pop off! I wasn’t graceful. Heck, I was barely moving. And, to add insult to injury, I was sore the next day. Iain though? He fell asleep. Maybe I could learn to like that stroller…

Now that Mudder and Fadder are here, I’ve had two solo runs at 33 and 20 minutes, non-stop each. I’m hoping they’ll be here at least a couple of weeks which gives me two weeks to put in some running miles and, hopefully, become a little more fit. I’m going to need it for the ‘Return of the Jogging Stroller’.

In knitting, I’m still working on Iain’s wee sweater. I’m getting to the point where I’m going to be sad to see it finished. I really love it. I hope he hasn’t grown out of it yet…

If the weather cooperates, we’re hoping to go camping this weekend. I hope to have some blogworthy shots by the time we get back!