Joe does Ragnar, Rachelle gets motivated

I’ve been on a running hiatus, and I don’t have an excuse. That may not be completely true. I’ve been learning to balance a hectic work schedule, happy dogs, and my pet project, the farm. Being pregnant has been a delightful distraction from the guilt of not running. But after this past weekend, I just had to find the time to get back out there.
Ragnar Relay New England took place Friday and Saturday and my husband, his friends and my sister banded together to conquer the 190+ mile challenge. I volunteered at an exchange and had a great time, but felt slightly tortured to see teams welcoming their brave runners and sending off the next. I wanted to be them. I cheered everyone along, but it was a struggle not to be a little sad about missing such an incredible experience. They would bond over the difficult hills, the overnight running, and even pooping in the woods.
As they celebrated the end of the race their wary smiles left me with the desire to get back out there. So today, I finally did it. I was in Miami for work and had a rare hour to myself. At 7:00 a.m. I set out along the board walk of Miami Beach. About half way in I worked up the courage to run, with a promise to myself that I would just do 1 to 2 minutes at a time so that I didn’t over do it. After 30 minutes I was back at my hotel feeling pretty proud of myself. The distance and pace were nothing to brag about, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I ran a bit, and I can’t wait to do it again.

Happy May: A garden we will grow

The first two days of May were absolutely beautiful. And on the first day of May I got to start my very own garden. With two dogs, it's hard to grow anything in the backyard, including grass. So we decided to take advantage of a community garden that is about 1 mile from the house. We spent Saturday morning picking out our plot and grooming it so that it's ready for planting next weekend. This week, while it's not so pleasant outside, I'm going to paint a sign for our lovely little piece of land. Provided we turn out to be ok farmers, we'll have a summer full of fresh veggies. Our farm plot neighbors were pretty awesome too. They've offered to put up a fence around our two plots to keep the rabbits out. If we fence them together, we'll have a neat little path down the center of our plots so that it's easier to farm. I'm so excited about it. I was even up to the challenge of toiling in the soil for a full 2 hours. Baby G was kind enough to let me. Perhaps Baby G won't mind a short run later this week?


I found this great little ticker at thebump.com. It'll stay current throughout the blog. When I posted this I was 16 weeks preggo.