My life hasn't been anything special. I haven't raised millions for charity, developed a cure for a debilitating disease, or set a world record. I'm just your average American woman. The best thing about me is my children (5 and 2 months) and for that I am truly blessed.
I started running in 2008 after the break up of a long term relationship. I ran to feel better about myself. I ran to gather my thoughts and find the woman inside I'd lost touch with. I ran my first 5K and I was hooked. I skipped the 10K and headed straight to a half marathon. After that a marathon seemed like it was nothing more than doubling something I'd already accomplished so I set my sights on ultramarathons. I picked a trail ultra with a course that was open extremely long. I finished but just barely. I couldn't walk for a few days and I waddled for weeks. I loved every minute of it!
I promised myself I would be more prepared the next time and I set myself to a new challenge, my first road marathon. By this time I had met my now-husband, Shane, and we had moved in together. He supported my running and my goals. I couldn't picture my life being more perfect but it was about to be. On an 8 mile training run I felt oddly drained and walked more than usual. My Australian Shepherd was looking at me like I was nuts every time I tugged his leash to slow him down. I waited until Shane left for work and took a pregnancy test. It was immediately positive and I almost lost my mind. I went through every emotion possible in the span of about 10 seconds and was basically a heap on the bathroom floor. I left the positive test on Shane's nightstand and went to bed but didn't sleep. I should have known better than to worry. He came home in the morning and saw the test. We worried about how to work things out for about 24 hours and then gave in to our complete joy. Shane put the icing on the cake when he proposed right before Christmas. We originally planned to wait a year to have the wedding but we decided to just jump in head first and we were married on March 22, 2010.
My pregnancy was picture perfect for the first 35 weeks. I gained a good bit of weight but I was still running and then I kept walking after running became too hard. At 33 weeks I began to swell noticeably. My midwives told me everything was fine. They reassured me every week that I was perfectly fine. However, in my 38th week I started having regular contractions but nothing was actually happening. After 70-some hours with no sleep and contractions 4 minutes apart I asked to be admitted to the hospital. Once out of the care of my midwives I was diagnosed with preeclampsia. I had to give up my dream of natural childbirth and accept Pitocin and Magnesium. Thankfully I still was able to avoid pain medicine. Nineteen long hours later our beautiful daughter was born. I was in Heaven!
Around 1 week postpartum I started walking again and everything seemed perfect. My midwife cleared me at my 2 week check up and at 3 weeks I started run/walking again. I started to have some heavy bleeding and I backed off. My midwives again told me I was fine so I ran through the pain and bleeding. At almost 6 weeks postpartum I decided I wasn't fine and went to the local ER. I am so thankful that I listened to my body this time! I had retained a large piece of the placenta and that was the cause of the bleeding. I was severely anemic and barely above needing a blood transfusion. One day and one D&C later, I was on my way to recovery again. I was sidelined for a week and then began running again.
I am now 9 weeks postpartum and I have gone from running 1 mile to being able to run 5 again. I registered for the Pittsburgh Marathon in May and I plan to PR at the trail challenge again in June. So this is my way to hold myself accountable with my training and share my trials and triumphs with those like me. I hope you'll join me or at the very least cheer me on and maybe find it within yourself to take the steps to get healthy for the ones who matter in your life!
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