There's always a first time for everything

Photos courtesy of LVTC

Saturday was a day of firsts. I raced while pushing my son in his stroller for the first time and I ran a race, just for "fun".  The heat in Las Vegas is pretty brutal right now. I'm also feeling super sluggish all the time. I wanted to shake up my routine a little bit. I also needed something to motivate me to workout.   Working out feels like a chore right now, but when it's over I'm so glad I did it. 

The Las Vegas Track Club was offering a timed 4 mile run out on the same bike course where I ran a 10k in February.   My husband had to work on Saturday morning so, I knew that I would be bringing my son with me. I really like this bike trail but, it is pretty isolated and I wouldn't want to run out here all by myself.  Even though this race was going to be for fun I still got that nervous / excited feeling that I get before a race. I love that feeling.

I got there about 5 minutes before the start, I signed up and, I lined up in the back. My goal was to finish the 4 miles in around or under 40 minutes. I didn't want to push myself too hard in this heat and if I needed to stop to walk I would. 

The first half mile was quiet and I ran past a guy and I heard him say "oh great I'm being passed by someone pushing a stroller". I just kinda laughed it off, 50 yards later he passed me. 100 yards later I passed him.  

During the first mile, I'm the shorty pushing the stroller.

At mile one my hat started to come off my head and my kid dropped his sippy cup.  I also noticed that I was running an 8:40 mile (a bit faster than I planned). I had to stop to pick up the sippy cup and toss my hat into my stroller basket. The guy behind me caught me and I could tell he was happy about it. At the turn around point I saw him again and I joked "don't let me catch you" and he responded with a "oh hell no". I think the teasing was good natured but, a part of me wished that I would have caught him. On the way out we were running with the breeze behind us on the way back we were running into the breeze. It felt much harder on the way back.   My arms and back got tired before my legs did. I stopped to get a drink of water at mile 3 then, I took off again.   I finished 38:11 (9:33 per mile). 

I'm so glad that I decided to do this. It was a lot of fun. It was nice to cheer on runners at the turn around point and I enjoyed the change of scenery.