Aaaand we’re continuing on with our AMR 2012 Year in Review. Check out January-April here.
May 2012
![Rachel kicks off May with a BQ [Boston Qualifying Time]. "Thanks Ladies for the support of going Athena! I'm proud to say I brought home a PR, BQ, and 2nd place for the 'big girls' today in a marathon with over 2400 runners!" she says, "Feelin' like a BAMR! 3:30:01: final time...don't harass about the 1 second, I've given myself enough grief." Just major praise from us, Rachel. Nicely done.](https://anothermotherrunner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/RachelMay.jpg)
Rachel kicks off May with a BQ [Boston Qualifying Time]. “Thanks Ladies for the support of going Athena! I’m proud to say I brought home a PR, BQ, and 2nd place for the ‘big girls’ today in a marathon with over 2400 runners!” she says, “Feelin’ like a BAMR! 3:30:01: final time…don’t harass about the 1 second, I’ve given myself enough grief.” Just major praise from us, Rachel. Nicely done.
Mother’s Day came, and Susan celebrated with this gem of a note from her six-year-old. “My mom is great because every Sunday she brings boston creme donuts after her race.'”
Highlight from Ashleigh: I was able to race again after having two kids and a traumatic brain injury in 2009 that left me partly paralyzed from a hit and run while crosstraining on my road bike. Cyclist vs. BMW: I lost but also won. I now have such a respect for life and myself.
Polly and Sarah, her running pal, and their collective five kids represent big time. “It was the first time my 3-year-old had biked 5 miles and the first time my 2-year-old rode in a jogger,” she said, “Fun was had by all–and we got our run in.”
Highlight from Tracey: Running the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May with my running partner, who moved to Texas and came back for the race, and pushing her to a PR.
“I FREAKIN’ RAN 26.2!” says Stevie in a requested post-race report, “It wasn’t as pretty as I had day dreamed about (insert one overly cooked mama, dehydration, missing toenails & nausea) but I crossed the finish line sprinting with a huge smile on my face for a 4:47 finish. As soon as I stop hobbling around, I am ready to get back at it! This mother runner is ready for a PR!”
June 2012
Highlight from Kerry: I started Couch to 5K in mid-June. (I was sort of tricked into it, too…long story…42 years old, 4 kids, basically sedentary, hate exercise.) The day I came home and said, “That felt good!” and actually was excited to run again. My 5k finish was pretty awesome, too! Now on to 10k in the spring!
Cha, who we met at the AMR house party in Chevy Chase, MD, made this lovely collage after the shindig. “Tonight, I met a roomful of inspirations, and came home with a bagful of motivations,” she wrote. We co-hosted 10 house parties in 2012; they were all highlights.
Highlight from Kathy: I completed a straight 7 hr, 26 min treadmill run in the hospital while my 15 month old underwent major skull surgery. My running is absolutely nothing compared to his strength.
Alecia and her family after her girls ran their first 5K. “Free ice cream at the end!” she says.
Highlight from us: We launched the first annual AMR Challenge. Nearly 200 were mother enough to take the challenge–and snag the free AMR bumper sticker. Looking forward to doing it again in 2013.
July 2012
Highlight from Melissa: On July 1 I decided that after nearly 3 years (and 2 babies), I wanted to start running again. Found the shoes and went for it. 6 months later I have run three 5k races, make time 5+ times a week to run, and really feel much better physically and mentally. Hoping for a 10k in 2013!
Freedom completes a 14 miler–and her pack mules are with her every step of the way. “Here is a picture of the BEST water/training team a mother could ask for,” she says, “Thank you Trey and Skyla for 14 miles of great laughs and company this morning.”
Highlight from Patricia: I got at least one run in EVERY week. Most of the time I ran 3 times. Now I am pushing 5 times. Did my first 10K in April. PRed 5K in June. PRed 5 miles in September. Now I am starting to train for my first half marathon! Its been a great year of confidence building for me!
Talk about running like a mother. “My mom, who turns 59 years young this month, just set her half-marathon PR of 2:19 at the Missoula Marathon this morning!” writes her daughter, Kali, “This is her 5th half in 3 years and she shaved 10 minutes off of last years Missoula half. Congrats Mom!”
Highlight from Holly: We moved this year, to a village where there’s a Facebook group of Running Grrls. Suddenly, I have girlfriends to run with, who are inspiring me to brave the conditions far more than I ever did before. Thanks to them I’ve gotten off the couch more often, and had a great time doing it. A wonderful and unexpected benefit of this move!
“Another mother runner: me with my 9-month-old after winning 1st in my age group at a night 10k! Thanks for the constant encouragement through the website and podcasts!” she writes. Way to represent, Crystal (and love the earbud-eating babe!)
August 2012
Sonia and her posse ran were some of the many who ran for Sarah Hart in the virtual Run with Hart, another mother runner we lost this year.
Highlight from Laurie: The first time I went to a race I had only been running for a few months and when I got there I got totally cold feet. I started panicking and totally bailed out! After that I did two more 5ks this summer. I wasn’t going for a PR but just the fact that I ran each one without stopping; one was 95 degrees and humid as hell but I did it! This fall I did my very 1st 1/2 marathon! Now nothing scares me. This coming year, instead of being scared to do these races, I want to break my PR’s and go for the gold! Yay me!
We got to attend an amazing reTreat outside Seattle; we’re here with founder Beth Brewster. On Friday night, we all set goals in a candle-lighting ceremony, and then ran, yoga’d, paddle-boarded and laughed all weekend.
Highlight from Kayla: Running the Beach to Beacon in Maine in August. I ran it in 2011 when I was 7-weeks post c-section in the slowest time ever and vowed I would WOW myself the next year. This year, I ran my fastest time for a 10k! And my baby was at the finish line. Great race memory. I hope I get in again next year for a repeat.
“This was earlier today in Chicago, where my son ran his very first 5k,” says Adrienne, “Just looking at this picture makes me a happy mom, and a happy runner. For the first time I look at myself in the picture and am no longer disgusted by myself, but proud of what my body can do. Two children, countless miles and 140 pounds gone.” The power of running continues to amaze us–so glad you felt it, Adrienne!
Highlight from Heather: 2012 was an awesome running year: 1st marathons (2 official, 1 DIY); 1st ultra (40+ miles in 12 hours)’ and probably best of all..first 5ks (3 of them!) with my 6 (now 7)-year-old daughter!
Possible best picture caption ever from Catey: “Dear Wednesday: Go ahead and give me a 2-year-old waking up covered in puke, a 5-year-old complaining he feels sick, two teens running late, and whatever else you’ve got. I rocked a fast five miler this morning today before the sun was up which makes it all ok. And I have the shirt to prove it.”
Highlight from (and a bit of shameless self-promo courtesy of) Amy: I ran 4 half marathons in 2 months, with two of them under two hours. Thanks to the training plans in Train Like A Mother , I PRed with a 1:55.
Or maybe Katie’s beats Catey’s? “Highlights from this morning’s 8-miler: a beautiful close encounter with a young deer who was just as curious about me as I was about her; a snapping turtle the size of a dinner platter swimming around in a creek; and a peaceful dock to cool down and drink my water. Quite a way to start the day,” she writes, “Who says running can’t be magic?” Not us, Katie, not us.
What happened in May through August for you, running-wise? Did you feel the magic of running?
I took my family of 6 in a 2000 Honda Odyssey from Utah to CT and back in 23 days. I managed to run at least 3 days/15 miles every week while gone, in some really horrendous conditions (horrendous for summer that is). I also ran on some of the sketchiest hotel treadmills ever (and even had one very helpful employee fetch me a box fan to make sure I didn’t overheat since the a/c was busted in the exercise room). 13 days later I notched a 10K PR – mostly due to paying for another Mother Runner’s bib so she would pace me!
August marked a big milestone in my running life – a solid year of training with no significant time off for injuries, the first time ever I’d been able to successfully maintain a schedule of four running days per week, and the month that I began training for my first half marathon.
January 7, 2012 started my Half Marathon Marathon off with my VERY FIRST HALF MARATHON! I completed it in 2:15:01 with toes that were cramping. In the year of 2012, I’ve completed 6 half, Disney Princess (2/26/12), New Orleans Rock n’ Roll ( just 7 days after the Princess- 3/4/12), flew to California for the Disneyland Half (9/2/12)….and met Sarah and Dimity!!!…New Orleans Jazz Half (10/27/12) PR (2:14:15), Woman’s Baton Rouge Half (12/9/12….I will follow it up this weekend with the Jackson Blues Half on 1/5/13….7 Halfs in a year!! And all I wanted to do was run 1 time around my block!
Having never ran more than 5 miles, I ran my first half marathon in may and kept on training to finish my second in October! After 2012 I officially consider myself a runner.
Did my first-ever 10k on the steamy evening of July 3rd in Foxboro, MA. I’ll never forget that last mile where I abandoned my normal run/walk pattern and just ran, so excited that I was actually going to be able to do this. Then I turned a corner and saw Foxboro Stadium up ahead and had to fight back tears as I ran through the tunnel and out onto the field, finishing at the 50 yard line in 1:07. I don’t care if there was no one in the stands screaming my name, my brain was cheering loud enough to fill my entire head.
My running themed wedding at the Reno Tahoe Odyssey in June was definitely magical. Still meeting people who say “you’re the one that got married at the odyssey, cool” Love it and love my runner hubby!
My PR in May, after jumping n the middle of TLAM finish it! I can’t wait to start the training program from the beginning!
My son’s first 5k at age 4. Proud mama.