Who Were You Before You Became a Mom

I began following Resourceful Mommy when she hosted a Fisher Price Twitter party. I won an Ocean Wonder Aquarium for the crib and got a bonus toy too. So I entered another contest on her website and couldn't believe it when I won AGAIN, this time a gift card to Old Navy!! Woo Hoo! She holds some fun Twitter Parties with great prizes but her blogs can also be fun to read.

She wrote a post last night Happy Mom Series: What Did You Used to Be? It made me think of myself and my new role as mom.

If you asked my friends or coworkers who I was before Benjamin they would say a runner and HUGE Gator Fan.

I've been running races since seventh grade. Started out with the mile, then the 2 mile. Then running the 4x800, 1 mile, and 2 mile in Track meets. Then came Cross Country. Which was 2 then became 3 miles (why they didn't make it a 5k is beyond me). I skipped the 10k and went straight for the 15k when I was living in Jacksonville. Then in my pure stupidity I signed up for the 2006 Disney Marathon. I had no clue how to train for it, I just knew I wanted to do it. So a month before the race I ran a half marathon on a whim to help train for the marathon I had signed up for... Yes, you read that right, I signed up for a half marathon to "train" for a full marathon. I'm just that NUTS! The half I finished in 2 hours 28 minutes (Craig told me he wouldn't drive me home if I didn't finish under 2.5 hours) and the full I finished in 5 hours 45 minutes. Not bad with no training. I couldn't walk for a couple of days but I did it! I have gone on to run several more half marathons and another full. But the runner inside of me since Ben has arrived has been on a hiatus. Don't get me wrong, when I found out I was pregnant I still went to San Francisco and ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon (4 months pregnant). I signed up for the Peachtree Road Race 10k just before Ben was born in all hopes it would get me back out on the street running as soon as possible. Which it did but then the race came and went and I haven't been running since. I've got all the excuses... it's too dark in the morning, I'm too tired to get up at 6am to go running, when I get home I want to spend time hanging out with Ben and Craig, etc...  But now I'm thinking of signing up for the Atlanta Half Marathon in March. So maybe, just maybe the runner will return.

Since I became a mom almost 7 months ago, the Gator fan in me hasn't disappeared and I'm already passing it on to Benjamin. I have bought any article of clothing for Ben that has a gator on it. Every Saturday he wears his Gator onesie and if it is cold he even has a Gator fleece jacket.

Before I was a Mom I was a runner and Gator. Now that I am a mom, I am a Gator that is a mom that hopes one day soon she will be a runner again.