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.

2009 Review

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Run a half marathon while pregnant!
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I believe my New Year’s Resolutions were run more, stay healthy, and grow savings. So I would say I did a pretty good job of that. With my fastest 10k in memory and a half marathon in the hills of San Francisco while 14.5 weeks pregnant. Build up savings- definitely!
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Most of my close friends had their babies at the end of 2008.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Thankfully, no.
5. What countries did you visit? USA, I don’t even have a passport so it will be a while before I go out of the country.
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? A healthy baby boy
7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
February 20- Craig’s dad got remarried to a wonderful woman- Carol and they are going to enjoy retirement so much together.
August 6- Found out we were having a baby!November 25- Found out we were having a boy!
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Getting pregnant then following thru on the half marathon I signed up for in March.
9. What was your biggest failure? Making more friends in Atlanta, definitely one of my new year’s resolutions this year.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Had a Crohn’s flare up and pulled something in my neck while moving but other than that not too bad.
11. Something wonderful that you bought? Canon digital SLR, Craig’s car, new mattress, couch, and coffee table
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Lots.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? A few.
14. Where did most of your money go? Probably mortgage and rent.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Getting to have a baby. :)
16. What song will always remind you of 2009? Not sure a lot got added to the ipod but I’m not sure one really sticks out.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
Happier, fatter (6 months pregnant will do that to you), and richer.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Enjoy free time instead of always filling it with another project.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Stress and worry over things.
20. How did you spend Christmas? With Craig, low key but we did have Filet Mignon- YUM!
21. Did you fall in love in 2009? Everyday with my husband, growing baby, Peanut Butter, and life!
22. What was your favorite TV program? Florida Football (had to see that coming right?), Psych, Bravo reality, I’ve gotten sucked into General Hospital.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I’m not a hateful person.
24. What did you want and get? A baby.
25. What did you want and not get? I can’t think of anything other than maybe wishing we would’ve had consistent renters in our house in Orlando instead of several month of an empty house after the last bailed on her lease.
26. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 30!! My birthday weekend we went to Flip for burgers and milkshakes with Josh and Blaire and on my birthday Craig and I went to Canyon Burger for lunch! Baby and I love burgers! We went to San Francisco which was our big present to each other.
27. Who did you miss? Janet- Craig’s mom.
28. What’s something important that you learned? That I sometimes need to step back and refocus on what’s important not what others may think is important for me.

Nike Women's Half Marathon

Sunday was RACE DAY! I got up feeling good but knew I was going to take it easy. The race was more emotional than I thought it would be (I did do it with baby gator on board). But I felt good and it's amazing even to me that I can finish a half marathon 15 weeks pregnant. I finished in 2:18:18 (about a 10:30 pace). Not my fastest half marathon but still such a big accomplishment!

Now to breakdown the actual event.
Getting to the start I had figured I would just catch a cab from our hotel to Union Square, I walked around outside our hotel for 10 minutes with no luck and another girl from Colorado walked out and I asked if she would like to go call a cab together... well come to find out she actually had a towncar waiting that was already paid for. She said jump in and we'll go to the startline together. I offered to pay something but she said it's already paid. So I took her picture at the start and emailed it to her after the race.

It was in the fifties during the race. There was a heavy fog on the bay in the morning keeping the temps down along the water. The “scenic” parts weren’t that scenic due to the fog but I drove the course the day before and got to see it without the fog. Other than running stadium steps for a mile+, I don’t think there was any hill in Atlanta that would compare to the hill I encountered on mile 6. I started running up the hill but realized I was probably running just as fast as I could walk it so I began the uphill trek at a quick walk. I had brought my ipod (no headphones) with me to sync up to my Nike+ and keep track of how my pace was throughout the race but at the start it froze up and became useless so I tossed it to Craig at mile 3. I was surprised at how quickly each mile went by, especially since I was running slower than normal, I was by myself and I walked a mile of the race> I saw Craig at mile 8. When I got to the Cliff House at mile 10 I couldn’t believe that there was only 3 miles left. I definitely listened to my doctor and took it easy for the entire race.






Firemen in tuxes handed us our necklaces


The race is definitely all about the women running it and had spectators all along the route. The expo (which they called an expotique) was really ALL about Nike, if you had forgotten bodyglide or any other race supplies you were on your own for tracking it down in San Fran but overall it was a fun race. Merchandise was available at Niketown if you wanted to wait 30+ minutes in line.

The runner tracking and timing was not the race’s strongest point. They used eternal timing devices, which was the first time I’ve ever used that brand. Most races of that size are moving towards the D-tags that are disposable or the timing chips. I couldn’t find my official time until Monday night when I googled for race results and they weren’t posted on Nike’s site until Thursday. I also signed my husband up to receive text messages of how I was doing and they came randomly and actually said I finished in the future. They charged people a couple of dollars to track and are refunding everyone for the mixup. The actual texts were something like this... "Melissa Neubauer has passed the 10km location of NWM at 8:08:44 today." and "Melissa Neubauer has completed the NWM Race at 16:24:54 today" and those were the only 2 texts he got. The one saying I finished was delivered to him at least an hour after I had finished running.

Happy Birthday America!

This 4th of July like many past 4th of Julys I ran a road race. In Orlando it was the Watermelon 5k. Now in Atlanta it is the Peachtree Road Race 10k. Every year 55,000 people register and this year for the first time every runner was timed and there were over 50,000 timed finishers, making it the largest timed 10k event in the country. There were actually 10,000 people who tried to register and weren't able to get in.
The big thing in Atlanta is a finisher's t-shirt. Every race I've run up here you don't get your shirt with the number you get the shirt after you complete the race. The Peachtree Road Race shirt is the most coveted shirt in Atlanta. They hold a design contest every year and the winner isn't announced until you pick up your bag after you cross the finish line.
Here's a picture before the race with a couple people I've met through work.

My friend Becki came up to Atlanta to run the Peachtree Road Race with us.

Our official times were: Melissa- 51:54 (3 minutes faster than my last 10k), Craig- 54:21 (qualified for a time group next year!), and Becki- 56:47

After the race we played a round of golf, then watched fireworks a few miles from the house. A very fun 4th of July!

National Running Day!

Today is National Running Day! Craig and I are running 3 miles after work. It's nice Craig has gotten into running with me.

Update on the jewelry... ring repair has been put off because I REALLY needed new brakes and since they cost about the same the Brakes won so maybe next month I will get my ring repaired. The earring is still a no show.

This past Friday my sister sent me a text asking if we were in town on Sunday because she, Eric and their puppy Bailey wanted to come visit. Craig and I were in town so Emily and family came up to Atlanta from Tallahassee Saturday night after they got off work and left Sunday evening. We didn't do much except watch the dogs play, we even walked them down to the creek to play in the water.

Saturday we played golf and it's official- I am playing from the gold tees. I have been playing from them every once and a while. But instead of going between the red and gold I'm just going to stick with the gold tees. Hopefully by the end of summer I will get my game to under 100 on a consistent basis.

Today I ordered 17 tickets to the Gator football season opener on Sept. 5th. Friends from Florida, Alabama, Nebraska, Tennessee, Kentucky, New York, and Georgia are going to Gainesville for the game. I'm really excited that we were able to order tickets from the University. I'm also making T-bow headbands for the group. I think I'm going to make 10 and whoever wants one can wear it. It's always so much fun to get everyone together! Now we just have to figure out where we are staying.

Tomorrow night is the New Kids on the Block concert that I'm dragging Craig to. He really may hate me for it because it looks like the forecast is calling for rain and the concert is at an Ampitheater. So it could be a wet concert. But I'm really excited to go see them since I was never able to see them as a kid. When we get home from the concert we will hopefully catch the end of the Magic v. Lakers game 1. GO MAGIC!!!