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ZOOMA Napa Valley 13.1 – race week!

ZOOMA Napa Valley 13.1 – race week!

I’m pretty much a broken record these days (always?), but like I think I wrote in one of my recent posts about running while pregnant, and particularly in the third trimester, if you would have asked me in my first tri — particularly in the second part of my first tri — what my running would look like late in pregnancy, my two-word response would have been: what running? As I’ve said time and again, pregnancy is such an unpredictable experience, potentially a new adventure every day, and I have no idea how I’ll feel from hour to hour, much less from day to day or month to month.

You can imagine my elation, then, at how healthy and strong I’ve felt, both in my running capacities and in my normal, everyday life capacities, as my pregnancy has progressed. I just very comfortably capped off my second-highest training volume week of my pregnancy — just shy of 40 miles — and while that is inconsequential compared to my usual volume, that’s huge for me for pregnancy. I am so floored, so grateful, and so happy to be running so comfortably and fairly effortlessly that my words fail to express my gratitude. It is unreal. Realistically, had you asked me in late December or January if I’d be up for running a half marathon in Napa in late June, I would have told you that there was no.fucking.way., that pigs would surely fly first. I felt like ass, and when the world wasn’t spinning wildly out of control, my head felt like it was going to explode, making spending any amount of time upright — much less any time running or being physically active — just dreadful. To my hormones: thanks for what you do in my body, because you all are super important and do a lot of essential and critical stuff, but you guys sure can be assholes sometimes.

Barring whatever life and/or pregnancy might throw at me between now and race day — because let’s be honest, anything can happen — I’ll be toeing the line to run, not race (this is operative), on Saturday at the second annual ZOOMA Napa Valley half marathon as a social media ambassador. I had the pleasure of being an ambassador last year, for the inaugural, and this year, and both years, I’ve enjoyed getting to know the other women and promoting the 13.1/6.2 footraces. I’m approaching the ZNV half much as I approached the SLO half I ran at the 24 week mark — not so much for a particular time goal (though if I’m being honest, I’d really be thrilled to run 13.1 at a sub-1:55ish at 31 weeks+ pregnant) but more just for the fun and experience of it all. I mean, c’mon, the hell does it matter how fast or slow I run at this point? I’m really just thrilled to be out there, to be able to be out there. Fuck, I could argue that I should spend as much time as possible running just to prolong the enjoyment factor! haha

Pretty badass to score a side-5 with the one and only pro runner (and fellow pregnant mama!) @stephrothstein mid-race at San Luis Obispo this morning. @ericaagran and I had so much fun chatting her up post-13.1 today. Good gracious, how I love this community. #raceSLO #runningwhilepregnant #stravarun #letsgoHOKA #Idigstrongwomen
There is one professional runner in this pic from the SLO half, two pregnant women, and three women who had a good experience on a tough course.

 

Napa = hot air balloons on Saturday mornings
Napa = hot air balloons on Saturday mornings

 

Anyway, ZNV put on a good race last year, and I’m confident that there will be a repeat performance this year, too. My RA pacing buddies will be there again this year as well, so between seeing the other ZNV ladies and my pacing friends and running a good race in a pretty location, it should make for a fun morning.  Plus, Meredith, a Chicago-friend-turned-Berkeley-transplant, is also running 13.1, and these things are *always* funner with another.

I think the women’s running community and in particular, the women’s-centric racing scene, can be kind of a tricky thing to navigate. I’m personally all for women taking up running — I mean, why the hell not, right? if you want to run, then run — yet at the same time, I cringe at a) how many women’s-centric races self-promote and b) at the messages inherent to their advertising. It’s difficult for me to adequately pinpoint what it is that I see that often makes my skin crawl, but suffice it to say that there’s a lot I’ve seen that I do not like. I’ve read some interesting articles about the topic, and I often find myself agreeing with some of the authors’ points yet hesitate to fully subscribe to all their ideas. It’s complicated.

case in point: when you ask me about the Nike women's HM in SF I ran in Oct, I think of this pic ...
case in point: when you ask me about the Nike women’s HM in SF I ran in Oct, I think of this pic: a well-organized race, tough course, fundraising for TNT …

 

... not this
… not this, doing a race to earn a Tiffany necklace (though don’t get me wrong, it is pretty!)

 

Ultimately — and what matters most — at the end of the day, women’s-centered races have one purpose: to inspire and motivate women to take up/continue a healthy lifestyle by training for and completing a running/walking event in a safe and supportive environment, for a distance ranging from 1 mile all the way up to ultramarathons … and this, this central purpose, is something I can get behind (and absolutely support). I’ve run women’s races before and have always enjoyed the ones I’ve done, yet it’s still hard for me to pinpoint exactly what I enjoy about ZNV that sets it apart. I’ll have to think about it and get back to you.

Napa-ing last year
Napa-ing last year [PC: RA]

Anyway, yay race week! Yay, Napa! See you on the other side!

Celebrating 3 years of SJ’s Moms Run This Town chapter, with ZOOMA’s help

Celebrating 3 years of SJ’s Moms Run This Town chapter, with ZOOMA’s help

Shortly after my family and I moved to SJ from Chicago, an acquaintance-turned-friend from Instagram, Bernadette, connected me with the SJ/Milpitas chapter of Moms Run This Town (MRTT). It’s a free group, comprised of women who primarily run but also walk, swim, bike, hike–everything, basically–with athletic experience ranging from fresh novice to advanced and experienced. The SJ chapter of MRTT is apparently the largest chapter spanning the Silicon Valley area, with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of members in the fb group alone, and– no surprise here– the group is chock full of inspiring women who do the mother thing AND the wife thing AND the athlete thing AND the career woman thing (and on and on). It’s a pretty awesome group and kinda mind-boggling to know how much these women accomplish in their fitness endeavors while also childrearing; that’s no easy balance.

MRTT header

When I learned that our chapter was celebrating its three-year birthday, with the blessings and gracious help and many donations from ZOOMA staff, I offered to contribute some great ZOOMA swag and ZOOMA race sponsor items to be raffled off at the party last Saturday. ZOOMA gave us tons of technical t-shirts, running hats, reusable-material messenger bags, and some great Cytomax and Clif products for the mother runners… in addition to our standing 10% discount for race registration for Napa Valley (shameless plug: ERIN15 to save some cash!) in June. It was really awesome to be able to contribute so much good stuff to our running community and to get folks excited about this 2 year-old event up in Napa in June.

ZoomaMML-NV-logo-HRI think the next few photos can speak for themselves. The raffle winners were obviously quite excited to win the ZOOMA and sponsor swag, and I think a few ladies are even considering signing up for the flat and fast 10k or half marathon race. Awesome!

just a handful of the ladies in the SJMRTT chapter (PC: Irma/SJMRTT)
a few of the ladies in the SJMRTT chapter; we had over 50 people at the party (PC: Irma/SJMRTT)

 

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just a few of the prize offerings from ZOOMA
just a few of the prize offerings from ZOOMA

 

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Again, big thanks to ZOOMA for helping the San Jose/Milpitas chapter of Moms Run This Town celebrate our third birthday, and thank you for all that you’ve done for the women’s running community. I hope we’ll see some of my SJMRTT teammates toeing the line in June 🙂