Cardiff Kook 5K Run Race Report – 29 Weeks Pregnant With Twins

A race report! I’m as surprised as you to be writing one this late into my twin pregnancy but here we are. The Cardiff Kook Race is a local, competitive 10K race with a fun run 5K that takes place in Encinitas (where I live) every Super Bowl Sunday. Professional runners come out to compete in the 10K and a lot of the running community, including my running club the Seaside Striders, use it as an annual test of their fitness. I ran it the last two years and enjoyed it – not only because it’s my hometown race but also because the logistics are so easy.

When it came around this year, I was 99% sure there was no way I’d even want to walk in the 5K. I knew I’d be close to 30 weeks pregnant with twins and Mike was going to be out of town for a bachelor party so that meant I’d have to push the stroller. But, I’m surprised to still be running and feeling pretty good and I ended up signing up last week after getting a decent discount code to sweeten the deal. I figured since I’d be pushing the stroller I’d end up walking quite a bit, partially because it’s harder to run with the stroller and also because my 2 year old daughter Siena is in a phase where she wants to jump out of the stroller and walk on her own. I figured worse case, we’d turn around after a half mile and go back. Best case, we’d walk about half and run about half.

Getting to the race was easy – we left the house at 7 a.m., found a parking lot just 2 blocks from the start, grabbed my bib and saw my friend Kelley and her family just before the 10K start went off at 7:30 AM. Her husband had a dozen donuts and gave Siena one with sprinkles on top. After that, I grabbed a small coffee at 7-11, said hi to a few friends and got ready for the 5K start at 8 a.m. Siena was occupied almost the entire time by her donut and I was worried because she had been in the stroller for nearly 45 minutes and we still had the race ahead of us.

I walked the first couple of minutes as I started back with all the other strollers. Once it cleared up a bit, I started to jog and kept going for nearly a mile! I took a few walk breaks but mostly ran until the turn around since there is a decline going that direction. I was surprised that pushing the stroller didn’t feel heavy and that Siena was still occupied eating her donut and watching the runners. I was wearing my maternity running support belt and had absolutely no pain in my belly or anywhere else. I just had the normal feeling of feeling heavy and easily winded, which meant I had to keep my pace very slow.

I really enjoyed the portion going out because I got to see the professional runners in the 10K run by, followed by everyone else in the 10K or 5K who was faster than me, which was basically everyone I know. Just before the halfway point Siena started asking to get out – the sun was in her eyes. As soon as we turned and she was back in the shade, I gave her some raisins which kept her occupied again.

I walked up the steepest “hill” of the race which isn’t really much of an incline but always feels like more when you’re pregnant and pushing a stroller. Once I was at the top I ran/walked for a bit more and then ran the entire final half mile. As we approached the finish line, I saw many friends along the course cheering me on. I felt amazing and picked up the pace a little and got a little emotional crossing the finish line thinking about how I was completing this race with all three of my girls – two in my stomach and one in my stroller. I felt amazing and proud! My finish time was officially 37:44, which is a 12:10 min/mile average. Not bad!

I am so incredibly thankful to be feeling so great at this point in my twin pregnancy. When I first heard I was having twins I had a lot of preconceived notions about what it would look like and I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by how my body has handled it (besides the dreadful first trimester nausea that lasted into the second trimester). I know I may have some of the toughest weeks ahead of me but I’m becoming increasingly optimistic that I won’t be uncomfortable as I imagined. As for running – I’m literally taking it day by day at this point.

In the day following the race I made sure to get a TON of water in and I took long naps both days (which these days is usually part of my daily routine anyway). I took a rest day on Monday and didn’t do anything active. Even though a 3 mile run may have been nothing to me in the past, I know that my body is working hard to create two babies in addition to running and I gave it the rest and nutrition it needed following the race.

Do you have a local hometown race that you hate to miss? Ever run a race with a stroller?