Ever had one of those runs where you just have a feeling before it even starts that something isn’t right?  That was today for me.

 My alarm went off at 5:15 am as usual, but for some reason I had a really hard time getting up and feeling motivated to run.  I actually checked the weather from my phone in bed first to make sure it wasn’t thunder storming (or maybe I was hoping it would be).  I got up and from my first step, noticed that my foot was still hurting.

 Last night, I walked the dog as usual and went to the video store for a while to see if they had any new TV series out on DVD that Tim and I could watch until the new fall lineup starts in a few weeks.  Everything was fine and then I got home and was letting the dog in and when I took off my shoes and stepped down it felt like I had stepped on a small pebble between my first two toes on my left foot.  I picked my foot up and there was nothing there.  I rubbed it a little and then set it back down and the pain was still there.  It wasn’t horrible pain, but just felt like there was a pebble stuck on the bottom of my foot.  It felt that way the rest of the night and I tried to stay off it as much as possible before going to bed.

 So, I guess before I even got out of bed I was probably thinking about it and a little worried.  All the while I was getting ready for my run this morning I kept debating with myself on whether or not I should go.  Besides the foot thing, I had some strange pain near my previously injured IT band the day before and I just “didn’t feel like running”.  Well, I knew I’d be mad at myself if I didn’t at least try.  So I started running, telling myself if my pain got worse or stayed persistent I could turn around at any point and go back.  To my surprise it actually felt better the further into the run I got, but to be on the safe side (and to keep myself mentally sane) I decided to just run 4 miles instead of 6.  I hate to not get in my weekly miles exactly as I’d planned but I told myself that if I was feeling this way, 2 miles less this week was NOT A BIG DEAL in the grand scheme of things. 

 So I shuffled on.  It was pretty dark out and I was running on the sidewalk.  I wore my reflective vest, but not my head lamp.  Yesterday morning when I ran it was really humid and my head got really sweaty so by the end my headlamp kept sliding down and it was annoying to continually adjust it.  Also, my watch has been having some issues lately.  It no longer saves or stores my runs.  Tim’s tried doing a complete reset a couple times and it fixes it for a week or a few runs and then it starts going back and doing it all over again. Also, sometimes I either haven’t been hearing my watch beep all the time at the mile markers or it isn’t beeping anymore at all of them.  So this morning, I knew I was getting close to my 2 mile turnaround point and wanted to make sure I hadn’t missed it so I went to hit what I thought was the “light” button and instead hit the stop button.  I was at 1.90.  Well, since it was dark and I didn’t know what button I hit and I couldn’t see I continued to hit all the wrong buttons and then all of a sudden this lady was running right by me and I was so consumed with messing with my watch I didn’t see or hear her until she was RIGHT THERE and she said “Morning!” and I screamed!  I screamed!  Then I apologized and felt completely embarrassed and started running again for what I was guessing was a tenth of a mile and then turned around and started running back.  Well, finally I got underneath a street lamp and could see the buttons on my watch and realized my errors.  So I started it up again and just wanted to be done with this crazy run.

 A little ways down the road I started catching the woman who made me scream.  Embarrassed, I didn’t want to go by her again so I crossed the street and ran on the other side just to avoid her.  Finally, the run was over and I felt better that I had done it, and also felt good that I had shortened it.

 Some days you just really have to listen to what your body is telling you.  I got myself in trouble when I tried to run through pain with my IT band injury so I was glad that I’m better able to listen to myself and be flexible now. 

 To be honest, this whole week of running has been somewhat of a challenge for me.  I’m now 14 weeks along and into the second trimester, which is nicknamed the “honeymoon of pregnancy”.  I have felt somewhat better than I was before and do seem to have more energy.  On Monday, I slept until 8 am and ran about 9:30 am and it was already quite hot and humid.  I was supposed to run 7, but just felt dehydrated so I ran 6.  Then on Tuesday I was supposed to run 7, but I woke up to thunder storms and had to postpone my run until lunch that day.  Well, it was hot and humid then, so I shortened the run to 5 miles and was really glad that I did because I struggled through the 5 miles and came back drenched in sweat.  So Wednesday I finally got to do my 7 and it went pretty well, but by today I was just really tired and not feeling it.  I normally do 5 on Thursday but since my runs were all messed up this week I was supposed to do 6.  Oh well.

 I want to attempt my first 10 miler in pregnancy and since my injury on Saturday.  When my foot hurt I got kind of nervous and it brought back all those memories from my IT band injury.  I realized today that I wanted to be able to do the 10 miles on Saturday more than I needed to get in my 6 today.  Its supposed to be much cooler weather on Saturday and I take tomorrow as a rest day so I hope it goes well.  I want to run in the Grand Rapids Bridge Run 10 miler next weekend so I need to make sure I can run 10 before I sign up. 

 As far as the pregnancy goes I’m feeling pretty good.  There are only a few pairs of work pants that I’ve been able to wear lately, so I have a feeling I’m going to need to get some maternity clothes real soon.  Its strange because I really don’t look pregnant yet, but I can really notice the bump around my lower abdomen and it gets feeling pretty squished sometimes after a full day of wearing my work pants.  I find myself getting kind of impatient with the seemingly slow movement of time.  I’m DONE with summer and ready for it to be fall but this week we’ve had weather in the 80’s and horrible humidity.  I just want it to be cooler out and want to wear some warm fall clothes.  I also sort of want to just be further along in the pregnancy.  I know that I should enjoy this time when I’m relatively still small and not “noticeably” pregnant yet, but I’m really looking forward to having a “real looking” baby bump.  Maybe I just really want baby to get here now and not to have to wait 6 more months.  Maybe my hormones are just going haywire and I can’t seem to figure out what I want!