Kristy Maute

Shamrock Weekend – Part 2

I’ve talked a little bit about Shamrock Weekend in 2011 on my blog, but since the blog didn’t exist a year ago it was only referenced. I was on a mandatory 12 week running break thanks to a stress fracture in my femur. The weekend was pretty emotional for me since I felt like I fell just short of finishing my first marathon. Although I wasn’t running, Cole had signed up for his first Final Mile run. If I couldn’t cross the finish line, I sure was glad someone in our family would earn a medal that weekend.

Cole lined up with his school. He was a little nervous so he asked Christian to run with him. 3….2….1….they were off and running. I saw them run by me just after the start line. As soon as they passed, I rushed over to the finish line with my parents to cheer Cole across the finish line. Kids started to arrive. More kids showed up. Cole and Christian were nowhere to be found. Ten minutes passed. No big deal. Fifteen minutes passed and I started to get worried. Twenty minutes passed and I was ready to cry. I knew the race had turned into a disaster.

Although I didn’t witness it first hand, the race did turn into a disaster. Cole shut down like he often does when he gets nervous. He didn’t like the people cheering. He got insecure. He walked most of the mile with his head hang low and tears in his eyes. Christian made him finish because we don’t quit things that we start no matter how hard it gets. When I saw Cole cross the finish line, my heart sank. He was in tears. He didn’t want his medal. He kept telling me he didn’t earn it.

Fast forward to 2012…

Shamrock Final Mile commercials started to air on TV. Cole came home from school with information. I told Cole I would sign him up again if he wanted to run. He told me he never wanted to run it again.

And then a few weeks went by…

Another final mile commercial came on TV. Cole whispered that he wanted to run again. He did? If he was serious, I’d love for him to run again. He was serious. He brought it up several more times, so I signed him up.

Shamrock Final Mile 2012 - Cole, 7 years old

I had no idea what to expect going into his race yesterday. I was a little nervous for him. I offered to run with him. When we found all his class mates, he said he wanted to run it by himself. I kept asking him if he was sure. (I really need to learn to trust his first answer.) 3…2…1…he was off again. Christian and I watch him cross the start line and then we quickly rushed to the finish. The first kid showed up (in less than 6 minutes!). A few more kids showed up. AND THEN………Cole showed up. 9:08 mile.

I cried. I smiled. My heart has never been more proud of him. He surprised me. He impressed me. I was so excited for him to get his medal.

He has grown up so much this year. The difference between 2011 and 2012 is proof.

When I asked him how he felt when he saw the finish line he said this to me: I saw the finish and I knew I just had to get there. I was trying to catch my friend. And then I heard the announcer say my name.

He liked the cheering this year too.

WAY TO GO COLE!

Cole is a mess! The hair! The smile! Life with an almost 8 year old.

Shamrock Weekend – Part 1

Today officially kicked off my official come back to running since having Chet 10 weeks ago. Although I had originally signed up for the half marathon, I changed plans shortly after Chet was born. After some debate, I signed up for the 8k race instead of opting out of running all together this weekend.

I am SO glad I signed up for the 8k.

Last night I went to bed with butterflies in my stomach. In spite of the nerves and a few wake up calls with a rumbling tummy, I slept great. Chet woke up at 1:30am to eat. I woke him up at 6:00am to eat before I got ready. After pumping, I finally got out the door much later than I had hoped (still have to figure out how to juggle all of that).

When I got down to the race start, I soon learned that there was no bag check. Ugh! I had packed all my things plus a few so Christian wouldn’t have to remember them when he headed down with both boys on his own. Fortunately I ran into my friend Courtney and other moms from Moms Run this Town. Courtney is a beast and is completing the dolphin challenge – she walked the 8k today and is going for a PR tomorrow in the half marathon. She offered to carry my bag while she was walking. I can’t thank her enough. I would not have had the race I had today if it wasn’t for her carrying my bag.

With the feeding, pumping and bag issues behind me, I headed to the start line. Within minutes I was off and running. I hadn’t really created a plan for this race. I just wanted to feel it out. I knew there was a water stop at mile 1.5 and 3. At the first water stop, I would decide if I needed a walk break. Like most races, the first mile flew by because I was busy dodging people. I was feeling good at the first water stop. My new plan was to get to the boardwalk before I allowed myself to consider walking. I felt good at the boardwalk. New plan. Get to the next water stop. At the next water stop, I was tired but I knew I had more. I could make it off the boardwalk before I needed a walk break. Before I knew it, I passed the 4 mile marker. My legs were tired. I was tired. I walked very briefly to drink some Nuun that I was carrying with me. I started running again. I ran under the finish line feeling amazing and tired and incredibly proud of myself.

Somehow I ran all but a small fraction of the entire 8k race today.

It felt so good to cross the finish line. It felt so good to run a race. It felt so good to put my run/walk runs behind me. I definitely feel like I’m finding my running legs again.

Garmin Stats:

Mile 1: 11:15

Mile 2: 10:59

Mile 3: 11:10

Mile 4: 11:45

Mile 5: 12:38

Garmin Total: 5.02 – 57:57 @ a pace of 11:33

Race Stats:

8k (4.97 miles) – 57:51 @ a pace of 11:38

Not to shabby for me. Not to shabby for 10 weeks post baby. I really am excited to watch myself further progress over the next few months.

(On Friday I ran 2 miles. Hello 10s. My pace was 10:40 for those two miles!)

Stay tuned for Part 2…Cole ran the Final Mile again this year.

My Happy Place

Wednesday night Christian and I were invited back to our birth class to share the story of Chet’s birth. Driving to the Little Neck Swim and Racquet Club brought back the overwhelming feeling of joy. For eight weeks, we spent our Wednesday evenings in their meeting room. We learned all about childbirth. Even more importantly, we learned a lot about ourselves and our relationship in the process. Our feelings about childbirth became rooted in facts and knowledge. During the process of educating ourselves, I fell in love with childbirth. Not just my childbirth, but childbirth in general. The entire process is amazing to me. I love how very little control we have over the journey. I love how its a babies first journey in life. As a mother, it is our first chance to support our babies as they set the pace for their life.

I miss those classes. I miss labor. I miss the birth of a baby.

Seeing all the couples in the room filled my heart with so much warmth. Although their journey is their own, I know how much I received from the class. Aimee and Christi gave Christian and I one of the greatest gifts we will ever receive. They gave us the knowledge and the confidence to trust our bodies and to trust our babies. With the support of this class and these two amazing woman, we established the foundation for Chet’s birth plan. Although a lot changed from the piece of paper to the delivery room, having the knowledge we now have about birth and the support of our doula allowed us to give Chet his best birth. Every couple in that room is about to experience a similar journey. I wanted to hug each and every one of them. I want to hug everyone woman I see that is pregnant and about to birth her baby.

As I lay in bed Wednesday night, I had the hardest time falling asleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about the classes we took and Chet’s birth. What was it that made those classes so impactful on my life? Half asleep, I think I figured it out. The classes produce amazing dads and support systems. Our birth classes made Christian an active participant in the birth. He knew everything that was going on inside me from early labor to active labor to transition to pushing. He will never know the physical feeling, but he understood. He was able to embrace the journey. He wasn’t just there waiting for his child to be born, he was there to hold my hand through the journey. The birth classes made Christian apart of the birth. While we were sharing our story on Wednesday, I looked at the faces of all the dads in the room. They all had the same expression Christian had on his face in class – aw and amazement.

I truly LOVE child-birth. I would love to be in the room with every mom as she is about to welcome her baby into the world. I would love to give a dad the gift that Christi gave to Christian. She allowed him to be my husband that day. He was able to serve me instead of advocating for our birth wishes. Christi and our nurses became our advocate instead.

Child birth and everything that surrounds it feels like home to me. I would have 20 more babies just to experience giving birth again and again if Christian would let me.

All my life I’ve been chasing down a dream trying to figure out where I belong in this world. I think I found it. I want to pass on the gift that Christi and Aimee gave to me. I want to give that to other mothers and fathers. It might be time to start looking into doula training. Writing that here on my blog makes me nervous and excited all at the same time. In my years of searching, I do know that only good things come from attempting to tackle the things that make you nervous and excited.

While I’m not ready to tackle this hurdle today, it is on my radar for the very near future. First I need to tackle the hurdle of returning to work on Monday and learning how to be a working mom again. I can not believe it has been 10 weeks since we welcomed our own itty bitty baby into this world.

My sister is welcoming her third child into the world next week. She better be careful! I might crash her birth! (don’t worry Amy. I’m only kidding.) BUT I am so excited for her to meet her own itty bitty baby and to fall in love with the tiny person she has been growing for 9 months.

A Run with a Best Friend

Although this guy did join me, this post is not about running with a 4 legged best friend.

Yesterday’s run was a run with myself.

After my last run, my friend Erin passed along some words of wisdom. She told me that I should never say something to myself on a run that I wouldn’t say to my best friend. I would never tell my best friend she is slow. I would never say she’s a long way from her pre-baby/pre-injury running self. On today’s run, I left all of that crap with my last run. Today’s run was a fresh start. Isn’t that one of the reasons running is so rewarding? Every run you get to start over. You can leave the bad runs behind you, and you can start fresh. The baby, the pregnancy, the injury have nothing to do with this run. This run starts the second you leave the door and ends when you get home. It is what you do in between that defines that run. No more excuses. No more I’m sorrys. I just ran and laughed (yup! out loud!) and enjoyed the 30 plus minutes I gave to myself. I’m not trying to win any race. I just want to enjoy each run, challenge myself to become stronger, and give myself a break mentally. Those 3 miles brought me back to center.

And guess what? It worked! I ran all 3 miles without walking (technically).

Here’s a break down of yesterday’s run:

Mile 1: 11:18

Mile 2: 11:19

Mile 3: 11:28

Total: 3.01 at a pace of 11:22

Slowly but surely, I am finding my running legs again. A week ago I would have LOVED to see 11s for my mile pace. I’m embrace and celebrate yesterday’s run for exactly what it was: a great reminder of how much I love running and that I am capable of bouncing back.

And now to the technically portion…

I did stop twice. No walking. Just stopped. I stopped my watch too.

The dog pooped and I had to bag it.

I also decided to try out a new app on my iphone: Jog.FM. It/I had some technically difficulties. It has the potential to be a really awesome app. The app scans your itunes for the type of music you like. It calculates your speed. It then generates music for you on your run based on your pace and music preference. It stopped playing after 1 song. I ran for a mile and half with no music after that, but I really wanted music. I would tell my best friend to stop, dig our her phone, and fix her music so that is exactly what I did. I switched over to my own trusted itunes and ran home listening to Eric Hutchinson.

I haven’t ruled out the Jog.FM app yet. I’ve heard great things about it. I just need to play with it before I’m running. In its defense, I had never even opened the app on my phone before I headed out the door. I’ll try it again next time.

This weekend I’m running an 8k. It feels so good to enjoy a run before race day!

Note: After writing this post I played with the Run.FM app some more. I think I solved my problem. If you have it detect your speed, you can’t lock your phone the traditional way. You have to use their lock feature. I’ll try it again on my next run and keep you posted.

A Soup-er Sunday Recap – Potato Corn Chowder

I really need to get out of my bubble more. It was chilly outside on Saturday when I decided on a soup to make on Sunday. Little did I know Sunday would be a beautiful day, and a warm heavy soup might not sound as appealing when the sun was shining. Another Note to Self: Pay attention to the weather forecast.

I was still living in my bubble Sunday morning when I put all the ingredients in the slow cooker so I plowed ahead with my Potato Corn Chowder. Even though my soup didn’t match the weather outside, I have to say it was pretty darn tasty. I think I liked it better than any potato soup I’ve had in a restaurant (not that I’ve tried a lot though).

I found the recipe through pinterest. It was this great photo that lead me to the Mama Loves Food! blog.

And here is her recipe:

Slow Cooker Corn and Potato Chowder Ingredients:

8 ounces (1/2 pound) bacon, cooked until crispy and crumbled
2 1/2 pounds Russet potatoes (approximately 5 medium-sized potatoes), NOT peeled, diced in 1/4 inch cubes
8 cups (about 2 pounds) kernel corn (I used frozen)
1 medium/large sweet yellow onion, finely chopped
1 cup chopped celery
6 – 8 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
32 ounces (4 cups) chicken stock
16 ounces (2 cups) half & half or heavy cream
salt & pepper

Slow Cooker Corn and Potato Chowder Directions:

Combine all ingredients EXCEPT half & half in the slow cooker.
Cook on low for 10 hours or high for 6 hours.
Blend about half the soup using an immersion blender (or just scoop it into your upright blender then return to slow cooker).
Add half & half or heavy cream and continue cooking, uncovered, for about another 15 minutes, until heated through. Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve and enjoy!

This recipe gets two thumbs up! And what made it even more exciting was that fact that I got to use a Christmas gift that had yet to be used: my immersion blender! I LOVE THAT THING! I moved half the crockpot mix to a soup pot to blend it. I then added the rest of the and the heavy whipping cream.

We even made corn bread to go a long with our soup just like the photo (but I forgot to take my own photos. New mom brain!)

If the weather continues to feel spring-like, soup-er sundays will be taking a summer twist!