Last day of July, and I’m at 9 weeks pregnant today. 

 I’m sitting here, trying to get motivated to get something done and its so hard.  I’m tired.  I just want to lay down and can’t quit yawning.  I’ve been feeling a little queasy in the mornings too. 

 The weekend was good.  A little slower than the previous two, but still pretty busy.  We got up early on Saturday for the Byron Bank race that Tim and Mackenzie ran in.  I ran a warm up and cool down with them and got to watch both of them finish.  Tim ran a huge PR, 17:21, pretty close to the 17:20 I ran there the year before.  I was so proud of him. 

 I got in my first 7 mile run that day but it was kind of broken up and a lot of it was slow because Tim seemed to want to run slower than normal.  So it really didn’t feel like anything special.  We told Mackenzie our news and she was happy for us. 

 Then we watched the Byron parade for a while with Val and Derek and Brooklynn (their baby girl) and got ice cream too!  We walked around at a farmers market and some little tent sales and bought a wooden board with hooks for our house. 

 Later I went to a party for Suzy and pretended to drink and stayed until about 9:30.  I was so tired.  I fell asleep on the couch sometime around 11 while Tim and I were watching the Olympics. 

 Sunday I was feeling really tired and lazy but had to go to the grocery store and do some errands around the house.  I went on a bike ride because I felt like I should since we’re doing the 43 mile ride with my parent’s this weekend, but I only went 16 miles and that seemed like a lot. 

 Tim’s family came over later for a cookout and we told them the news and of course they were really happy.  It felt good to finally start sharing our news.

 Yesterday I was supposed to run after work with Darla and Carol and go out to dinner afterwards.  I knew Darla only wanted to run 3 miles so I woke up and ran 3 in the morning figuring I’d run 3 that night too.  Well, we ended up not running and just going to dinner instead.  I ordered a burger and ate the whole thing!  I did feel guilty about not getting my run in so I got up extra early this morning and ran 7 with Tim. 

 This 7 was the whole way through so I finally feel like I’ve conquered 7.  I actually felt pretty good and we averaged 7:39 pace for the run.  Its just now that I feel like I ran a marathon!

 I just really look forward to the passing weeks and with each one I feel a little better that the pregnancy has progressed thus far.  I spend my weeks looking forward to the weekends and my weekends wishing they would slow down. 

 Lately, I’ve been thinking and dreaming a lot about the future and about still wanting to go after my goal of qualifying for the Olympic trials in the marathon.  I’m so thrilled that I’m pregnant and the little baby growing inside of me takes precedence over everything else right now.  But I still long for the feeling of a really good workout, or racing.  Just that feeling of pushing yourself, taking yourself to that painful place and surviving it and coming back stronger.  So it helps to picture it, even very far out into the future and I’ve even outlined a plan on how to get there again after the baby is born.  I’m hoping that I can qualify in a spring marathon in 2014- giving myself about 13 months after having the baby to get there.  There will be a progression and milestones I’ll need to hit along the way to believe that I’m on track, but it feels very possible.

 So as my body changes during these next several months to the point that its unrecognizable to me, I’ll have those dreams and those goals to think of and hopefully keep me sane and motivated. 

8 weeks pregnant belly shot