Why Babies and Marathons Don't Mix (at least not very well)

Please note the large, extra enormous teeth in the mouth of this child. Those pearly whites alone should testify as to why marathon training and babies do not mix well.  Today, I almost gave up.  He has not been napping. The sharp incisors are coming in fast and furious. I do not keep track of when I sleep because it is depressing. I have tried to get my workouts in during the night, early morning, mid-nap, and even resorted to a Thomas the Tank Engine video. I never do that. I do not believe in TV. We only own one DVD for extreme emergencies. This was it. My sanity and my marathon training were at stake. My dear husband listened as I poured out my dilemma before he went to work. Then, I was left alone to madly get school done before we had our house inspected (worse than a college exam because I had little people following me around un-doing everything I did!).  School was accomplished, house was cleaned, and no running took place today. But I did come to yet another revelation. It will take more than this to break me. It will take more than teething, sleepless night and long days to make me give up training or to say it is too hard. This is a refreshing thought to me - I simply had to decide that this would not be the reason that I quit. I would not want my children to know that I gave up on what I had already worked so hard to accomplish.

I did however come to re-evaluate my goals to align with the current reality. I simply want to finish. If I must crawl, I want to finish. There. Now, anything beyond crawling across the finish line is a plus. If things go well, I'd like to be around the time that I ran in 7 years ago (3:47).  If God smiles upon me, and Divine mercy rains down upon me, I'd like to Boston Qualify at 3:40.  Miracles do happen and I know I must do my part to work hard towards that goal. However, I also am not willing to sacrifice my children's stability and security in our home for my training. To them, it must be mostly unseen. They are little, and their needs are still abundant. My husband Kurt is my hero; he suggested that I could run while he gets up extra early with Ethan. I registered officially for corral 2 with the Columbus Marathon October 17, 2010.  Today is not the day I give up. May God continue to teach me this lesson of endurance in the other areas of my life!

This photo is to prove that except for ultra-rare emergencies, our children are not parked in front of a TV. They are watching out our front window for entertainment instead!