Valentine’s 5K

Every so often there are free 5K races on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.  They start at the fitness center which is only a half mile from our house so I plan on running every one that I can while we live here.  This past Saturday was a Valentine’s 5K.  Cameron and I put on our pink clothing and went running!

The first time I ran postpartum was when Cameron was 8 weeks old.  It felt good but it was a challenge.  I ran a Jingle Bell 5K in December and then stopped running and started the Beachbody Insanity Challenge.  Last week I started jogging again, 1.5 miles a day.  The 3.1-mile race was so EASY despite taking so much time off (7 weeks) from running!  The Insanity videos are great for toning your body and building muscle.  I’ve done an uncountable number of squats, lunges, and jumps for the past eight weeks with those videos so I really conditioned my legs despite not running.

Cameron has been sitting up in the Bob stroller for walks but I’m not completely comfortable running with her sitting up just yet so for this race, she was in her carseat attached with an adapter.  I will let her sit in the stroller for the race next month (she’ll be six months then).

My friend Meghan ran the race with me, along with her husband and their dog.  Her husband and dog were doing circles around us the whole time and he was nice enough to slow down to take some action shots for us.

It is challenging to run with a stroller, even with my smooth riding Bob.  Swinging your arms while you run is important for energy distribution and it helps determine your stride.  If you are pushing a stroller, you can’t swing your arms naturally.  You can swing one arm at a time, but that still feels really awkward to me.  When you don’t swing your arms, it takes more effort and energy to push your body (and the stroller) using only your hips and legs.  I like to think that running with a stroller burns a ton more calories.  It certainly slows me down some despite my best efforts.  I’d honestly rather run without the stroller but I do love having Cameron with me and I also love having a place to put a bottle of water and my phone 🙂

I recently found The Running Mom blog that has some great tips about running while pregnant and running with kids.  If you’re a running mama, check out her post Tips for running with the stroller.

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam is a gorgeous military base with palm tree lined streets, sidewalks everywhere, and a running path along the water.  Being in Hawaii, the weather is just as gorgeous every day of the year… it’s a runner’s paradise 🙂

Cameron did great!  She was wide-eyed and happy the entire time – just enjoying the ride!

We finished the race in 35:15 – not bad for pushing a stroller and being five months postpartum.  By the end of the race, we both had wet shirts… mine from sweat, hers from drool 🙂  I’m already looking forward to the next race!