seriously. we ran a half marathon.

me. baby. our farmer.

it all started when i was pregnant with miss kaye. i had this grand idea that when i was no longer pregnant i would train for a marathon to whip it back into shape.

then i had a baby and realized quickly that in my world the amount of time it would take to train was a far cry from reality. i'm not saying that someone else couldn't do it...i just know that it wasn't feasible for me.

but 13.1...that's something i could gut out. so i signed myself up for the famous potato 1/2 in the big city...and secretly signed up my farmer. little did he know, but in about eight weeks, he would be pushing 40 pounds of stroller and baby.

this 1/2 marathon had to happen, people. especially after my nutella phase.

and so training began. i followed a program loosely that included three or four runs a week, one day of cross training (or a short run) and one of those runs being a long run. i increased in mileage by one mile each week. (the actual plan called for one mile every two weeks but i started late...oh well.)

so trot trot trot i did. i ran very consistently for those eight weeks and farmer ran...not consistently. he was busy...farming. instead of running, farmer sacrificed and would watch baby while i sweated out the long runs on the weekends. either that or he pushed baby while we ran together.

i wasn't worried about him though. he ran 30 miles last september for his 30th birthday. also with minimal training. you can read about that here.

race day arrived and what with living in the middle of nowhere and the race starting at 7 am, we had to leave the farm no later than 5:30 am. that gave us a wake-up time of 4:30 am.

we suited up, loaded the running stroller, loaded miss kaye, forgot our race packets and headed down the drive. stopped the truck, ran back inside, snagged the packets and we were officially on our way.

upon arrival, farmer stretched out real REAL good. if anything, he's thorough.





yes, that's a bulb syringe with my baby. she loves it.

the race was a blast. the course was flat. the participants were fantastic. and by "fantastic" i mean they cooed and oooed and aaaaahd at my farmer and baby while kaye smiled as she and farmer zipped by. that's right...my farmer ducked, dodged, weaved, sprinted in and out of the other runners in hopes of finding prime running space. so as he sprinted ahead of me, i fretted about keeping my training pace (9:50's). but then i fretted about some hot runner chic hitting on my farmer and baby so i would sprint after them! this happened for the first seven miles until i finally yelled after them, "RUSSELL SCHIERMEIER! i can't keep this pace!"

it must have been the way i used his full name in a scolding manner that made the other runners laugh, but farmer got the message. he slowed down for me...for a hot second. then he was back at his old tricks...laughing and chatting the whole way. i puffed and panted but managed to keep up.

we were nearing the end of the race on the greenbelt and i said to farmer, "what mile is this? i didn't see mile marker 10! i didn't see mile marker 10!" i was panicked. all i could think was, "are we seriously still on mile nine?"

farmer informed me that we were actually almost to mile 12. what??! brilliant.

we decided that we could totally bust out the rest of the race at a faster pace with our little beaver-baby cheering us on the whole way...and so we did.


folks...i cannot believe that my little miss kaye did all 13.1 miles with us. she slept for only about three of the miles. the rest of the time she just looked at us and all the people around...taking in the experience, i'm sure.

baby, farmer, and spuddy buddy...it's idaho, after all.
it was an addictive experience and i hope we run one again soon-ish. it got me back into running shape. it helped me lose a few l-b's. we rocked out a 9 minute p/mile pace. and my farmer supported me the whole way.

best. farmer. ever.