One Bad Mother Runner

This picture says it all. Lauren is "One Bad Mother Runner". We bought this shirt at the Expo on Saturday when we picked up our race packets b/c it fit the occasion perfectly.

Lauren completed her third half marathon today (Josh's first) at 31 weeks pregnant. Everything went great on race day as the weather was perfect (clear, mid 50's when we started) and we accomplished our goal, which was to finish the race. Our training over the past month plus really suffered as we were traveling a lot, battling a little sickness and had busy work schedules. We ran with our good friend, Laura Cullen, who owns Clarke's (great Irish pub in South Beach for any of you reading this in South Florida) and has also missed some training due to an injury several months back. So, the three of us ran at a very comfortable pace and enjoyed the great scenery of Miami & Miami Beach.

We also have a great story from the race. As we are approaching the 1 mile mark, this couple is running with headphones and she doesn't realize how loud she is talking. She says to her partner (loudly) "we have to deduct 20 minutes from the clock b/c of when we started". This kind of got a few looks from people running nearby as we all realized how loud she was, but she didn't. Then no less than 10 seconds later, she says (again loudly) "oh my gosh, that lady is EXPECTING." Everyone again looked at her and by this time her partner has yanked the earphones out of her ear to tell her how loud she is being. The three of us kind of look over at her, smile, wave and acknowledge that, yes, Lauren is pregnant and running. She asked how far along and we told her 31 weeks and she about fell out, but congratulated Lauren and then off we went. It was just very funny how loud she was without knowing it and thankfully for her sake, Lauren was actually pregnant.

We really enjoyed our training program with Footworks and all of the new (and old) friends we made. Our good friend Jordan was in our group and I want to send a special thank you to her for always being willing to take it easy in our training runs when Lauren needed an extra break or two. We missed running the actual race with you, but am proud of the great time you & Laurie made today.

Also a huge shout out to Katie Koziol who came down this weekend to cheer us on. Katie has run a few marathons and half-marathons but decided to be our cheerleader this year and she was awesome. Katie got up early with us and then drove out to three different points along the course to meet us, cheer for us, and supply Lauren with a PB&J sandwich. Katie made a cool sign (pics to follow in a later blog as they are on her camera) and had a balloon which made her easy to spot on the course. It was so nice to have her meet us out on the course and give us encouragement. So, to Katie, THANK YOU!!!!!

We will now turn our running shoes into walking shoes and slow down the pace over these next 9 weeks. Lauren wants to keep exercising a few days a week, so we plan to get up and walk several mornings each week down at Kennedy Park near our house. The doctors have been very happy with her progress so far and much of that is due to staying in shape, so we don't want to stop now...and as Lauren says, anything to help increase the chances of a smooth, fast delivery when Chandler decides to join us.

Overall, today has been a great day and even though we are now sore and tired, it was such a great accomplishment. We want to again thank all of our family & friends for their support, love and prayers over the past few months during our training. Here are a few pictures from the race.

At the Footworks tent prior to the race

Mixture of our running group this year and a few from Lauren's group last year (Team Happy Hour). 

(L-R) Laura, Jordan, Monica, Manny, Lauren & Josh

Equipment adjustment - gotta keep those shoes tied

This is for Glenna - Flamingos on the course

Lauren, Josh & Chandler on the Venetian Causeway with water, cruise ships and city skyline in the background. Great scenic course. 

Lauren and Josh post-race with our medals

Lauren & Jordan

Now to the part that all of you have been waiting for, a few pictures of Lauren at 30 weeks, which we took sometime during the last week. I know that's what everyone really cares about on this blog, so without further ado....

(apologies from the camera operator for the shadows)

Don't steer to far away from the blog over the next few days as I am certain we will be giving you another update later in the week. We have our first ultrasound appointment since October on Monday morning, so we finally get to see how much Chandler has grown over the past few months. We are hoping to do a 3-D ultrasound and we will definitely post an update sometime early this week. 

Happy New Year - 28 Weeks

Happy New Year to everyone. The past month has been quite busy for us as we traveled together to Atlanta and Harrisville for Christmas with family, followed by a trip to Abu Dhabi for Josh and a trip to Memphis for Lauren. We were very fortunate to see much of our family and friends over the last month. We pray that 2011 will be a great year for us in many ways. We are now at 28 weeks and less than 3 short months until Chandler's arrival...WOW!

In addition to the normal Christmas activities, we were blessed with a great baby shower back home in Mississippi. We were thrilled to see everyone who came, including many of our extended family, church family and friends. A huge Thank You also goes out to everyone involved in planning the shower, including Granny Faye, Aunt Norine, Mom Julie and anyone else who helped in planning and preparing the shower. We received so many great things for Chandler and were happy that all of it fit in the Jeep for the drive back to Miami with Lauren and Glenna (thanks Glenna for tagging along and spending a few days here in Miami with Lauren while I was gone!). We are also so thankful for gifts for Chandler from our family and friends who were not at the shower...we are truly blessed to have so many great people in our lives'.  Chandler is starting to get stocked up with many things, including a bassinet, bathing tub, lots of clothes & bibs, blankets, toys, diapers, bottles and all the other essentials. Thank you again to everyone!

We saw the doctor this past Friday and everything continues to look great from their standpoint, so nothing really to report there. We have now met four of the five doctors in our "group" and have had great experiences with each of them, which makes us comfortable going forward with whomever is in the delivery room when Chandler joins us. We will go have another ultrasound in about three weeks, which will be our first look at Chandler in quite a while. We are excited to see how much bigger he has gotten. We are hopeful to be able to do a 3-D ultrasound.

Here are some week 28 pictures of Lauren that we took today on her way out to a baby shower for our friends The Bucher's and their little boy Caleb.

We'll try to be more frequent with the blog updates in 2011. Thank you again to everyone for making the past month so special for us and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.