Mommy on the Run

Saturday's run was an adventure in itself. I decided to run outside with Emelyn in the jogging stroller. I suppose I was naive in that I had this idyllic version in my head of how it would unfold. Here's the image I had in my head:

ME: Happily running along, iPod plugged in, feeling very comfortable with the temperature outside (it was 50 and sunny). I'd establish a cadence and rhythm immediately and life would be GOOD.
Emelyn: Extremely happy as she munched on her bunny crackers, sipped her apple juice, and playing with her dolly. She'd have all of her comforts of home safely inside her stroller and within reach, including the very important blankie (or as she calls it "Blankie Too").
Also in my perfect vision of my first run with Emelyn, we would eventually arrived at the Amazon public park, where she could swing and run around for as long as she wanted, until the signs of nap time became more pervasive and we would go home.

WHAT ACTUALLY TRANSPIRED, however, resembled nothing of the sort.

After packing about 50 "necessities" inside the stroller for the journey, we were off and running. It's amazing how many items are required to take a little person more than 50 feet away from the house. Of course I've known this for two years, but never did it seem so excessive as it did while I was loading up a stroller that I intended to push for several miles. I eventually decided that all of the little items wouldn't really amount to much more when Emelyn herself, weighing in at 28 pounds, was factored into the equation.

Anyway - back to running.

The first two blocks or so went easily enough. I intentionally had my iPod volume very low so I could listen for her, should she need me, and also so I could be extremely vigilant for cars. As we moved along the street, I begin to hear faint mutterings from the stroller. I turned off my iPod to listen more closely and discovered that I could only hear her clearly if I stood in front of her. I suppose her soft voice facing away from me, in the great outdoors with other noises around makes for a very quiet Emelyn, indeed. I then had to stop the stroller completely and walk around to the front of it.

I literally expected that something catastrophic (well, to a 2 year old) had happened inside the stroller, like her entire cup of crackers had tipped, or her juice was gone already. What I found, though, would be a continuing pattern throughout the run.

As I walked around to the front of the stroller, I could clearly hear what she was saying: "Mommy, my cracker. Mommy, my cracker." I lifted the screen on the front of the stroller to see what was the matter and discovered that one cracker had fallen out of her cup and was out of her reach. Hardly an emergency, but nonetheless, I picked up the cracker, placed it in her cup, and we were on our way. Throughout the run, I found myself stopping to place a fallen dolly closer to her, fix "blankie too", who had been somehow wedged beneath her and couldn't be pulled out without my assistance, pick up the occasional errant cracker, refill juice, etc etc.

While having Emelyn along necessitated frequent stops (every few minutes probably) I eventually realilzed that I didn't need that walking recovery period as I had been doing (run 8, walk 2, etc). So I suppose there's a silver lining.

Peppered in with the cracker and juice emergencies, I was also being reminded about "the swings, mommy. The Park, Mommy". Which honestly, was a little bit of a distance away and it became more difficult as time marched on to keep her content to just sit and wait patiently. "We're almost there, sweetie" just wasn't working anymore and I was running (ha. pun intended) out of time. Just when things were going along just fine and I'd had a stroke of genius - we were trying to spot birds in the trees, Emelyn says "What's that noise, mommy? What's that noise - It's by my ear, mommy". I looked around hopelessly, as there were about 1000 noises at the time, and discovered that one of the tires on the stroller was completely flat and it was making a loud shooshing sound. This tire was right beside her head, as our jogging stroller is actually a Burley Bike trailer, but you can buy the converter kit to add a front wheel and a handle-bar to it to make it into a jogger. So it's essentially a box with two big wheels on either side, and a wheel in front. It's very light, very fast, and apparently very loud when one of those big tires blows.

At about this time, we had arrived at the University of Oregon apartment community where Emelyn's daycare is. We were running (loudly) through the parking lot when we see two friends from our Co-op (Her daycare is a co-op, so you can volunteer and your hours are credited towards tuition. It's a freaking brilliant concept). They just happened to be outside loading up their mini van (not sure why, but it's not important). I ask if the knew of any place nearby where we can pump a tire. As it turned out, they had a teeny air compressor that is powered by the cigarette lighter thingy in their van. Ten seconds later, we had full tire. Two seconds later, it was completely flat again. I must have ran over some glass. I do recall a glassy patch near a fraternity house while we were running near the University of Oregon. I probably didn't steer far enough away from it.

Emelyn again reminded me about the swings, so I pointed our bird sighting contraption towards the park, which was a distance away, but within sight. As we ran through the parking lot and back onto the street, I looked down at Emelyn and her head was ever so slightly tilted and resting on the side of the stoller, just above that loud flat tire. She had fallen asleep! I could not believe it! Not only was she sleeping, but it was that infant heavy sleep. Probably provoked by the shooshing tire.

So, we ran home and I picked her up and put her into her crib. All of that exercise had exhausted Emelyn. I was somewhere in between tired and energized, but mostly tired.

All in all, it was a good run. I ran for about 50 minutes, but probably only went 4 miles. I'm not sure, though, with all of the stopping and starting back up again it's tough to say. I enjoyed bringing along Emelyn, though will be more prepared next time and perhaps go to the park first.