Meet Riley!

My baby girl is finally here! I have to say she has a mind of her own since she didn't arrive even close to the date I asked her to. I guess at least she didn't come during the marathon and even gave Jesse a day of rest before making her appearance. But let me back up and start this story right.

Because of the amount of pain I was in, the doctors were nice enough to schedule me to be induced once I hit 39 wks which was Monday, June 27th . During the night I felt a little burst and then there was a little gush of liquid (sorry guys) but it wasn't a ton, so I couldn't be sure if it was my water breaking.  The rest of the night and the next morning I felt some leaking but no contractions. When I called in the morning, they had no room for me, but I eventually decided to go in and see if my water had broken. Yay, it had! But nothing else was happening so they  eventually induced me with some pitocin anyway. Serves them right, Riley can not be denied! Once I got to my room it was party time...

I like to have a big support staff, in the room were (pictured) sisters Alesha and Melia, plus my mom, other sister Erica, and Jesse.

Coach and I before the real fun began.

After the pitocin, they made me wait for a good stream of contractions before I could get my beloved epidural. Luckily, I didn't have to have too many, nor we they that painful, before I got the good stuff. Once I did, I got very sleepy, like usual, but this is what sends me into real labor. Things go really fast once they put that needle in my back, but we still had a bit of time to kill.

Yes, we played cards while waiting for the action to start.

Then I could begin to feel the contractions again, which meant she was putting the pressure on, it was showtime. Don't worry no graphic photos here, but check out what I was sporting...

Yep, my Chrissy's knee high socks!

After a bit of pushing, more than normal because I was pushing very lazily, they asked me if I wanted to touch her head. I quickly refused, but knew that she must be almost out. One more big push and she was here.

She weighed in at 5lbs 11oz and was 19 in.

Our attempt at a family photo, this was the best we could get.

I eventually got Peyton to acknowledge his sister and give her a kiss.

Her very first bath!

The first night and day are a blur now. Lots of sleeping, well some, ok a bit, but we watched lots of tennis and ate some cheetos! We didn't get released on Tuesday as we would of liked, but finally got to go home on Wednesday.

Her going home outfit, a wee bit big. I didn't get to rock the headband during delivery but I made sure to wear it the next two days.

And in case you haven't had enough of Riley, here are more pics of my little girl, who looks a lot like my boys at that age by the way. Now we are just working on getting her to like sleeping at night, she's not a fan now, and to stop feeling like she needs to eat every moment she is awake. I love her though, and feel a stronger connection to her than I did with the boys. Maybe because she is a girl, and maybe because I am not sure if she is my last. I am not the oogly googly type and don't normally feel intensely in love with my newborns, it usually takes me a few days, and some sleep, to really feel connected to them. But this time it happened quicker, and I just love cuddling with her. Now it is time to think about getting back into training! OK maybe, in a few weeks!

One Rockin' Race Report...Finally...

Almost two weeks later, I am ready to finally write my race report. My muscles are starting to get better, my knee is feeling OK, and I think I have taken enough showers in the meantime to finally get the stink off me.

The night before the race I wanted to make sure I had everything I was going to need for the next day, so after our bloggy meetup dinner, I headed back to the hotel and got my outfit laid out for the next day. There was so much crap gear I thought I might be mistaken for a creepy guy trying to sell stuff on the street corner.

The pockets are stuffed too!

The morning finally came after I woke up about every half hour thinking that I was going to be late for the start. I headed down for my continental breakfast. I grabbed a bagel and a banana and headed up to get dressed. After getting well lubed putting on lots of body glide, I got dressed and headed down to the race. Adorable wife and designated pusher sister dropped me off right next to the start and wished me luck before I headed down toward my impending doom the start line. I met up with the fast bloggy girls in corral 6 for a nice conversation and a quick couple of pictures and then headed back to corral 12. I downed a gel about 15 minutes before my corral was going to start as I was doing a bit of shaking getting ready for the race.

I was really worried about my calf at the start of the race since I hadn't run since I hurt it a week earlier. It did take a few miles for it to warm up, but after three miles I knew it would be OK and after the first 10K I could hardly feel my calf at all. My first 5K came across in 25:24 and I was feeling really solid. My 10K was 51:10 and by then I was flying and feeling good. My plan was to keep my pace around 8:40/mile, but at the beginning of the race I let my legs pick the pace and it just felt great passing people. Between miles 5 and 8 I think were my favorite as we were running along Lake Washington, it was nice and cool and there was a lot of flat and downhill and it was really nice. I was still feeling good at we hit the splitting point with the half marathoners. Maybe if I'd have known what I was in for, I would have thought a little harder about going left instead of right...

The rest of the first half marathon was pretty uneventful, I was just smiling and having a good time running along with all my fellow marathoners. I enjoyed watching all the people that had funny shirts and were out to have a good time. I spent some time running with a Korean Elvis which was an enjoyable experience until he passed me and left me in the dust.

My first half time came in at 1:51:06, easily on pace to go under 4 hours, which was my ultimate goal and I was still feeling really good. About the time I crossed the halfway point, I hooked up with a guy that I referred to as Colorado (he said he was from Colorado... original right?). He ended up being much better at hills than me and I was better at downhills, so we were a pretty good pairing, we helped each other with the other's week parts of their game.

Between mile 14 and 18 it seemed like it was just one big hill, good for Colorado, not so good for me. I made it through mile 18 and I was feeling the hills for sure. My 30K time was 2:43:53, definitely slowing down, but still not too bad. About mile 20 is when it all started to go down the crapper. My knee started to get a really sharp pain. I tried to run through it, but it was just too much. After walking for a little bit, trying to get some water and gels in me, I tried to start running again, but my knee really had a lot of pain in it and my legs started cramping...everybody say it with me now... BONK!!! Of the last 10K I was probably able to run about 2K of it... if that. 

I met some other people that were dealing with the same crap as I was, struggling to stay on their feet, yadda, yadda, yadda. I even tried to cram a ton of gel and everything else I could eat and drink to try to get some kind of energy back in my legs... newsflash... It didn't work. I saved a little something for the end of the race so I could at least shuffle across the finish line and do my best Aaron Rodgers "putting on the championship belt" impression.   



Not a very good impression... It looks more like I'm doing an impression of a gay rooster.



My final time ended up being 4:28:42... not the best time, but I'm still proud of myself for finishing the race. I'm thinking that my body was trying to tell me that I am not marathoner. It also pretty well knocked the desire right out of me to try to do an ironman. I was not even close to being able to run the whole marathon. Oh well, I still had a great time and I am glad that I did it. We met up with some friends that were also running after the race and then I gave designated pusher sister a break and pushed adorable wife over to Krispy Kreme to have some well deserved victory doughnuts.

This was Jason's (right) first half marathon

Adorable Wife and Stacey



Me, Adorable Wife, and Riley- Tressa rocked the wheelchair look!



To recap, and for those of you who didn't really care about the rest of the post and skipped to the bottom hoping I would just post my times, here you go.

5k- 25:54

10k- 51:10

9 mile 1:15:07

13.1 mile- 1:51:06

30k- 2:43:53

24 mile- 3:55:34

26.2- 4:28:42