Love of Pregnancy?

We have now made it to almost 18 weeks.  In the beginning, this felt like it would be so far away.  Looking back, it actually does go quite quickly.

I feel about the same way I felt in my first trimester.  I know I’m very lucky that I did not have to suffer through any of the common symptoms of pregnancy, mainly, morning sickness.  Overall, I think I have had a very easy pregnancy thus far.  

I am still very curious why women tell me they LOVED being pregnant.  I’m still waiting for this to hit me.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining.  I am very lucky and thankful that we were able to get pregnant.  I just cannot say that I love being pregnant.  No, it’s not difficult for me, but love it? Nope, at least not yet.
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I use to hear of women that complained of getting ‘fat’ while pregnant.  I thought this was a selfish or superficial thought.  I get it now.  I really did think that you just gradually get this nice, cute little belly that grows over time.  I knew that some people over eat and use the term ‘eating for two’ and get bigger than others, but overall, I just thought it was a process where you just grow this cute belly bump.  I was so wrong.  I sit here at 18 weeks, and I still feel fat.  My stomach is growing, but it’s not just a cute little baby bump.  I feel like I’m growing out everywhere.  I can fit in some of my clothes still, but just not very comfortably, and I have one pair of maternity jeans, and they are too big.  I guess I am just in that awkward stage.  Sometimes it gets hard not to feel self conscious about it all.

I still have not felt any of my baby’s movements.  I was told this can happen between 17-21 weeks.  Maybe this is when it feels more real.  Right now I seem to just have constant heartburn, a constant dull headache everyday and what feels like constant stretching going on in my lower abdomen, which sometimes hurts to even cough, sneeze and blow my nose, especially after working out.  None of these symptoms are terrible, and I don’t notice them at all times of the day.

I was very lucky that little Baby Lamperski allowed me to run the Philly Half Marathon one week ago today.  Besides a few bathroom stops, the baby was very accommodating to me.  Luckily, only one stop was during the race, at mile 7.  I felt really good, it was a breeze through around mile 8-9.  My first stop was at mile 7 for use of the bathroom, there was a line, and some nice gentleman let me go in front of him, very nice!  This break still lasted 4 minutes with the waiting.  I took a gel there and water.  I stopped again going up a long gradual hill.  I think this was around mile 9.3, and I walked for about 3/10 mile up the hill.  Just didn’t want to exert myself too much, and kept reminded myself that this race was not a race for me, and just about having fun.  This was also the point I started to feel ligament pain.  My doctor said this was normal, and nothing to worry about.  I stopped one more time at mile 12.  Only b/c I felt very dehydrated.  It was much warmer that we thought it would be, it was in the upper 50’s, but it was over 90% humidity.  Not a hot humid, but I was sweating a lot and very thirsty.  It was always so crowded around me at all times, so I didn’t stop for many water breaks, I should have carried my own water.  So, starting around mile 11 I was looking for water, they only had a Clif Shot station.  I was so thirsty that I was starting to get worried about the baby.  So, I stopped and walked at 12, thinking maybe there would be a station at 12.5, but as I got to about 12.3 I could see no stations, so I just decided to run very slow to the finish, faster to get water that way.  

I finished with a time of 2:06, my slowest half marathon to date, but I think I was smart the whole time.  There were a few points where I had to argue with myself about time.  A few times I just wanted to keep going, or pick up the pace, but I had to remind myself, time does not matter and to just make sure you feel good the entire time so the baby stays safe.  So, I enjoyed the course, I looked around at all of the sights and people, and had a good time.  Since my longest run was 10 miles before this, my legs were hurting a bit toward the end.  I think this may be the first race where I think I was smiling just about the whole time!

It was fun, and I’m happy I was able to complete a half marathon at 17 weeks pregnant.  When I finished I crossed over to the full marathon finish chute and got to see Chris finish shortly after me, with a time of 2:38, for 26.2 miles!  Good day for him as well!  (I started the race 15 min’s late due to a line for the bathroom, so started with a slower corral.)

Tomorrow we go for the 18 week anatomy scan, ultrasound.  We should be able to find out if Baby Lamperski is a boy or girl!  We could have found out at my 16 week appointment, but the baby wouldn't cooperate and kept it's legs tightly closed.  I really haven’t had any sort of intuition on this.  My guess is a boy, but this is purely a guess and I wouldn’t put money on it.  I base this on the fact that my belly seems to be growing out high up, which I think they say is a sign of a boy.  Really, no other reasons, but just a guess.  Chris’s guess is a girl.  Can’t wait to find out tomorrow!!  Then we can get started on planning the nursery!

Wrightsville Beach Half Marathon Race Report

Wrightsville Beach, day before race

 I have been running since I was in high school and joined the track team my freshman year.  I was on the track team all four years, I also ran cross country and indoor track, for a year or two.  I’ve always enjoyed running, but not so much competing.  I just liked running for the fun of it and the social aspect, but I always felt so much pressure for upcoming races. 

I ran sporadically throughout college, but focused more on the social activities while at St. Bonaventure.  I played club field hockey, but I wouldn’t say this gave me that much exercise either.  I didn’t really begin running again until I decided to train for my first marathon.  I signed up for the Chicago Marathon in 2007.  At this point, I really didn’t know anyone who ran.  I followed the Hal Higdon training program for beginners.  I ran 3-4 days a week.  Generally, 3-5 easy miles a few days a week and then my long run on the weekends.  My long runs were always by myself, and they weren’t always the most beneficial runs.  I allowed myself to stop and walk whenever I wanted, just though the point was to be on my feet, even if it was walking. 

You can imagine how this marathon went.  I had no clue how to train or what a marathon would feel like.  My only goal was to finish, but I definitely did not train the correct way.  Add to this that this was the Chicago Marathon of 2007.  It was SO hot and humid.  I was able to cross the finish line of this race, but I walked at least half of this.  Not even just because I needed to, I was made to walk the last 6 miles by cops on the course.  The streets were flooded by the open fire hydrants, meant to cool the runners down, as well as hoses being sprayed.  I was very happy just to finish this marathon though.

I had the great idea to sign up for another marathon in 2008, and yet another poor training attempt for my 2^nd marathon, Marine Corps.  This was the year I moved to NC and, probably trained even worse for this one.  Not to mention, taking almost a whole month off before this marathon due to an injury in my left leg.  Again, I crossed the finish line, but I hated marathons now.

I did start running more when I moved to NC and joined the Charlotte Runner’s meetup group.  This is where I met some of my first friends in Charlotte.  The Common Market run was my first group run.  Running with people was very new to me and it took some getting use to.  I didn’t even completely ditch my headphones until a couple years after this.  I loved how Charlotte was such a great running community.  The Charlotte Runners were my first running group, but from there I met the University City Road Runners and ran Saturday mornings with them, and later on, joined the Charlotte Running Club.  It is great how many running groups there are in Charlotte and how much support there is in this community.

Running really has helped me make friends throughout my life.  Starting in high school when I was new to town my freshman year and joined the track team, then fast forward to my move to Charlotte, NC and met almost all my friends through running.  Not to mention, this is also how I met my fiancé, at a Charlotte Running Club social.  We really did not like each other at our first encounter, but we got along better at the next function, for a mutual friend’s birthday party.

All of this is just to say that running really has shaped my life in so many ways.  I do tend to get injured more than others, and because of this, I really only allow myself to run 4-5 days a week and stay around 30 miles on average for my weekly running mileage.  This may sound like a lot to my non-runner friends, but to many of my runner friends, I know this is considered not even running! Haha.

Okay, the point of this post, the Wrightsville Beach half marathon. 

One goal of mine was to break the 1 hour 40 minute barrier for the half marathon.  I think this was my 10^th half marathon.  Many of the half marathons I have done were just done as a training run, a few of them I was injured going into them so they were just done for fun.  I was hoping I would finally get the chance to run one with a goal.  Even though, this made me pretty nervous. 

I asked Chris to help me get me to my goal.  This doesn’t always work so well, as I am not the best listener and don’t always take his advice.  I am terrible at stretching, icing, warming up, etc.  I do take 2 strength classes a week to help prevent injury.  I just do not train with the same intensity and thought that Chris does. 

He started giving me speed work training about a month and a half prior to the race day.  I also signed up for a couple races, a 10 miler and a 5k to get some additional speed work into my training plan.  My best time before this race was 1:44:xx in the half marathon.  I had gotten this time a few times prior.  Taking 5 minutes off my time meant going from just under 8 min/mile pace to the 7:35/mile pace.  Keep in mind, my previous 5k’s were about this pace.  I have only done a handful of 5k’s, ever, and not too many races, but still, I was not sure I could handle this pace for 13.1 miles. 

The week before the race I was getting pretty nervous, I was worried about the potential of wind, since it was at the beach, humidity, etc.  I ran a couple times that week and I did not feel good through either of them.  I am a total mental runner, so this did not help me.  I really had no clue if I could run the time I wanted.

We drove to Wilmington on Saturday morning, drove straight to the expo to pick up my packet and then went down to the beach to relax for a bit.  It was pretty windy so we didn’t stay long.  Chris’s friends, Adam and his wife Andrea, were nice enough to offer to let us stay at their house for the weekend.  Adam was running the full marathon and Andrea, the half.  We got to their house and settled in, chatted about the race course and the plan in the morning.  We sat down for a nice dinner and had a glass of wine, before turning in for the night around 9:30pm!  The race had a start time of 6:40am, and we had to take a shuttle to the start, so this meant a wake up call before 5am!  I am not a morning person.

We made it to the shuttle in time to wait at the back of the line and get on the very last shuttle to the start.  I think I was still asleep on the shuttle.  We got to the start line about 5 minutes before the gun.  Chris was not very happy about this since he wanted me to warm up and do some dynamic warm ups (which I have never done,) but I didn’t have a problem getting there right before.   I didn’t have time to be nervous, it worked out well.

The first few miles were in the dark, I felt great.  The plan was to make the first couple miles feel very easy.  7:45-7:50 pace.  I was not sure this would feel easy, but when we were running, it felt very easy.  We started to pick it up at mile 3.  We were even passing people at this point.  So many people we ran by were already breathing heavy, and this made me feel more confident because I felt good and my breathing was good.  I felt like I could have held this pace forever.  The first two miles were low 7:40’s, and then we got into the low 7:30’s  from mile 3 on.  Not too much to report on throughout the middle of this race.  It was nice and flat, there were always plenty of people around us. 

I was not sure I wanted Chris to run with me because it has not always worked out well for us in the past.  I tend to get frustrated with him when he runs with me, since my race pace is his easy running pace.  I like to know that the people around me are hurting as much as I am.  Megan Hovis was signed up to run the marathon, but she ended up not being able to go, so she let Chris use her bib as long as he didn’t cross the finish line. 

I will say, I did get angry at Chris a few times, but kept it in my head, mainly because I didn’t want to waste the energy talking.  In the beginning, every time we went by a cheering zone, he would get all rowdy and yell back at them.  This annoyed me, since I didn’t even have the energy to whisper.  He was also carrying Megan’s bib in one hand, instead of wearing it, the bib was yellow, for about 8 miles I thought he was holding a peeled banana in his hand, and this also annoyed me, that he was just running with a banana in his hand, again, I did not have the energy to ask him why he was holding a banana, so until I looked at it about mile 9 and figured out it was the bib, I was frustrated with him running with a banana. 

Chris was really good throughout the race with not talking to me.  He would say a few words here and there, like, keep your shoulders loose, keep your jaw loose, you’re doing great, we’re right on pace.  I’m sure these sound like encouraging words and I shouldn’t get mad, but they annoyed me during the race and I yelled at him in my head.  It wasn’t until about mile 11-12 , when he said “you’re doing great,” and some other words, that I said “shut up…please”.  I was struggling at this point, it was getting warmer out, there was more wind and I just wanted to be done.  I had no energy to pick up the pace like I thought I would.  The mile markers were so far off.  We still had over a mile to go. 

I thought we were a good bit ahead of our plan since every time my watch beeped a mile, we were always about 7:30, and our goal was high 7:30’s.  When we turned into the plaza where the race finished, Chris jumped out before the last couple turns.  He actually thought that was the end of the race since his watch already had 13.1.  He yelled to me to pick it up because I was already at 1:38:xx.  This made me nervous b/c I just didn’t have that much left in me to pick up the pace.  I pretty much wanted to walk at this point.  I could see the finish line, but the time was not easy to see.  I never looked at the time on my watch throughout the whole race, and I didn’t want to look down at this point, b/c I thought I was going to be disappointed. 

I crossed the finish line and the clock said 1:40:04.  I actually told myself this was okay, because I felt I gave it all I had.  I looked down at my watch, which I stopped at the finish line, and it said 1:39:46 for 13.18 miles.  I was thrilled!  I wasn’t sure if the official results would have me under 1:40, but I was still happy.

My official chip time ended up being 1:39:48.  My watch had me running a 7:34 pace, the official time has me at a 7:38 pace.  Either way, I’ll take it!  I’m happy with my effort and with how the race went overall.  It was the first time I ‘raced’ a half marathon, and now I know what this feels like.  I know it will be harder to knock more time off this PR moving forward, but I am looking forward to the day when I will beat this time!

Enjoying a free beer after the race.  Happy!

Now I can focus on our wedding, this race has been such a focal point for the last month, that I haven’t though too much about how close we are to our departure date. 

We are now 16 days away from our flight to Jamaica and just 18 days until our wedding!!!

I Love Productive Weekends!

Chris paiting our bedroom!

This past weekend was fun and productive! We started off by running in the Charlotte 10 Miler down in Ballantyne. I won a free entry to this race from Theoden’s (running) facebook page. It worked out well for a running workout Chris had planned for me. I am running the Wrightsville Beach half marathon on March 17th, so just a few weeks left to train. I have a goal, just not sure I am going to be ready for this goal in a few weeks time.

For this race, Chris had a plan for me to run a two mile warm up, then run the first two miles of the race at an 8 minute pace and get progressively faster with each mile. Then a mile cool down to finish. I was a little worried about a hill I heard about around mile 8, almost 6 miles of the race was ran on the greenway, so you think it’s going to be a flat, fast race.

That morning we woke up before 6am to heavy rain. We debated even driving down to the race in the cold rain. I decided since I was awake I might as well go, even if I don’t want to run, I could at least cheer others on.

As soon as we got down there and parked, I realized I forgot my race bib at home! Luckily, they were very kind at registration and let me have a new bib, since they were so nice about this, I decided I had to at least run. So, we went back to the car, sat in there to warm up and headed to the start line just in time for the race to start. No warm up for us, and also decided to just use this as a training run, no workout.

Chris ran with me, and we didn’t end up following the workout as planned, but still did get a good workout. Although, that hill before mile 9 was not pretty. I thought the two previous hills into the neighborhood were the hills people were referring to, but when I saw the crazy hill before mile 9, I was not very happy. I started running, but decided I was going to walk. I gave up. Chris tried to encourage me to keep running; saying the last mile is all downhill to the finish, but I did not believe him. I figured he was saying anything to get me not to walk. I did not like this hill, you go up a steep hill, then turn and go up another steep hill. As soon as we made the next turn, it was all downhill to the finish. I do wish I had previewed the course and knew about these last two miles before the race, because then I would have beeen mentally prepared.  My 9th mile was 8:44 pace, yowza! Then my last mile was 7:15, it was such a nice last mile to the finish line.

Overall I finished 14th female and 2nd in my age group, with an average pace of 7:46. Overall it was fun, and I would do this one again.

When we got home, we got to work in the master bedroom. We recently bought furniture for our bedroom, so we had to paint the room in preparation for the delivery on Friday. We chose a light brown color, not exactly what I had in mind, but I think it will look good with the furniture.

painting over the green walls





the finished room, waiting for furniture

won't be empty for long

We are also having my treadmill that is currently at my parent’s house in NY brought down in a few weeks. So, we had to make room in the other rooms for this. We re-arranged our guest bedroom and also our workout/movie room. Soon we will have a treadmill along with our bike trainer in here. Chris hung up a projection screen and mounted a projector on the opposite wall so we can watch movies while working out or relaxing.

workout/movie room

sitting down to watch a movie Saturday night

Sunday, Chris was able to clean out the gutters, finally. It seems like it is always raining down here so we were glad to get this finally taken care of on such a nice day. We also got a bike ride in through Davidson earlier in the day. It felt like a spring day and it was nice to be outside enjoying the weather!

Chris's Dad helped holding and moving the ladder

Just 40 more days until our wedding!!!

1 week before NYC Marathon, Sick :(

It is ONE week before the NYC Marathon, and I feel like this:

I started to feel a little sick on Tuesday and it got worse on Wednesday and Thursday, my whole body ached, everything hurt. I thought, from previous experience, that I had the flu. So, I made an appt. with my doctor so that I could get some meds to get this out of my system ASAP, with the marathon being so close. Normally, I wouldn't bother and would just let it pass in time. I was running a fever and just feeling like I got ran over by a car. My doctor said they have not seen any cases of the flu this year so she would be surprised if that is what I had, but she decided to test me for the flu as well as get a CBC and a blood test to test my electrolytes. This was Friday, the flu test came back negative and my CBC came back normal. She said it is a virus and just to take things conservatively and it will pass in time. My electrolyte test will come back on Monday.

Saturday I went out for a run with Chris and made it about 1.5 miles before I had to walk back home. My body just felt so weak to run. I decided I would leave my 8-10 miler for Sunday, and hopefully feel better. This morning, Sunday, Chris and I ran at Latta Plantation and I just felt terrible, still. My body felt so weak, it was just so hard to run. When we stopped at about 3.5 miles, I had a really hard time breathing, I felt like my chest was closing in on me. I then just kept coughing about the whole walk back to the car. Realizing that my body is just not ready to run still. Maybe tomorrow? Maybe just take it easy and get this out of my system and hopefully feel 100% on Sunday for the marathon? I guess the advice would be to cross train this week. Ride my bike, spin, swim. Ughhh. Oh, well. It is what it is. This girl just ain't cut out to run marathons. If it's not one thing, it's another. It is what it is.

I am THANKFUL that I can run, I get to go to NYC and RUN in the marathon...the ONLY marathon, I've ever really wanted to do, I'm healthy (minus this minor setback,) and I was able to get my 20 mile long run in a couple weeks ago. So, it's not so bad! :)

In other news, Chris and I did not make plans for the weekend, since I wasn't sure how I would be feeling, so Saturday we ventured out for a car ride in the mountains. We pulled off a couple places to walk around, the leaves are just beautiful right now! We saw a sign for the 'Bunker Hill Covered Bridge' off of I-40 West. I thought this sounded fun, so we followed the signs. They took us to the entrance to the trail for the bridge. It was not a very long trail, but it was pretty, so many trees with pretty leaves. We learned that the Bunker Hill Bridge was built in 1895 and is one of the two covered bridges left in NC. Pretty exciting stuff, huh? Ha. Yeah, there wasn't much to it. Here's a couple pictures.

We had to get back to go to the Latta Plantation Ghost Walk. I had never been to Latta Plantation before this, and have always wanted to go to one of their Civil War reenactments. It's a pretty cool place. Their ghost walk was very well organized and staged. Nothing real scary, many characters that jump out at you in the woods, but mostly it's funny. They got me a couple times!

This morning, I went to watch Chris run in the Monster Dash 5k (before heading to Latta to run,) put on by RunningWorks. Taken from their website: 'RunningWorks is a non-profit running program founded to encourage the homeless community to rediscover the power of teamwork, discipline, confidence and respect for each other one stride at a time.'

Good Event, great foundation!

I am going to sign off now since I took some NyQuil about half an hour ago. Trying to get some rest today while Chris is at his friend's house watching football. I've been taking Epsom salt baths everday, doubling up on my Greens and drinking green tea. Hoping to knock this sickness out of my system ASAP!

Disney World, new Garmin and Halloween Party!

This past week flew by! I was in Orlando from Tuesday through Thursday night for work meetings. I didn't know what was on the schedule while we were down there, but it was my second time ever in Orlando, and I still had never been to Disney World. I was very excited to learn that on Wednesday they arranged for us to be picked up from our hotel and taken to Epcot for the Wine and Dine Festival! We were there from 4-9:30pm, so we got to stay for the firework show, it was great! We only went on one ride, since the lines were so long, but the ride was awesome, it was 'Soarin' which is a ride that simulates hang-gliding over California. It is so cool, you even smell different trees as you fly above. Here's a link to check it out here. It was worth the hour wait for sure! We then walked around the Wine and Dine Festival. We ate at the pizzeria in Italy. There were six of us, so we ordered two of the large pizzas, assuming they were the big round pizzas we saw that everyone had. When they were delivered to our table we were very surprised to see how big they were. Between the six of us, we almost ate both of them! They were so good.

Saturday morning Chris and I headed to Mallard Creek Greenway for a 12 mile run. I was not at all in the mood to run. For some reason, I have not been into running this past week. I'm not burnt out, since I haven't been following any training plan in preparation for the NYC Marathon, and I have not been running high mileage weeks at all. I have gone over 30 miles maybe two or three times. So, I don't feel very prepared for this marathon, but feel comfortable that I will at least get through it and hopefully feel good at an easy pace. It ended up being a really nice day for a run and with all the leaves changing it was pretty, and enjoyable for the most part. I was able to use my new Garmin 405 watch. I ordered a refurbished one online for just $125.

When we came home we started preparing for our Halloween/housewarming party. We decided to have this party in part for a fundraiser for the Isabella Santos Foundation. We asked our guests that instead of bringing anything over for the party that they make a donation to our fundraising page: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/karinandchris/isabella-santos-foundation-5k-for-kids-cancer. We are so excited to say that we have raised $1,040!! I am so grateful to everyone who made a donation!!

The party was so much fun, so glad so many people made the ride up to the burbs to hang out with us! Here are some pictures below...

Okay, this little guy was not at our party, but him in his little pumpkin costume is too cute not to post. This is my nephew, Andy.

Chris originally dressed up as a mummy, but the costume did not stay on very well, so he changed into a Kill Bill costume that I had in my Halloween costume box.

This morning we were able to sleep in, and I enjoyed laying around for a while on the couch and catching up on some Modern Family episodes on Hulu Plus. Finally, I got up and Chris and I took a walk over to Birkdale Village and around our neighborhood. We even stopped by the playground on the way home!