I'm in! Day 1: Team O'Farrell

So for Christmas I asked for a jogging stroller. Another plan for me to lose that dog gone baby weight. My husband rolled his eyes probably thinking this was just another thing I was going to spend money on in the name of getting skinny that I would really never use. Who? me? Its not like I have unused cycling shoes in my closet, a gym membership that hasn't been used in over a year, or a gps watch that has never been taken out of the package. I think you get the picture here. But THIS time I was serious. So out we headed this weekend, in the rain, to get my new, top of the line jogging stroller (after all, it had to be the best!). This time, I promised Aaron, its for real! I have, after all, been a "runner" before. I used to run all the time, I even ran a half marathon once (never mind that was over five years, two pregnancies and about 30 pounds ago).

So I started looking up training programs. And then Jessica called. Do you want to do a half marathon? That was it, the motivation I was looking for, someone to hold me accountable. I was IN.

Day One--Brooke, Zachary and Bella the dog hit the trails

So today, thankfully the rain subsided. I headed out, new jogging stroller, baby on board and bundled and doggy on the leash. I didn't want too much pressure for this first time out so we took it slow. We ran/walked for about 45 min. It was more walking than running but we were out and it felt good. We even made it through the mud on the way to the paved trail (which was much deeper than I thought! good thing that new jogger has shocks!). I was so proud of myself, dirty, sweaty and breathing hard that when my phone rang as we were almost home (in the handy pocket of the jogging stroller "console"--yes that cost extra but I heard you get skinner with it) and I saw it was Aaron I had to answer to show him how serious I was. Now this is where things went slightly down hill. Pushing a jogging stroller up a muddy hill, talking on the phone with an ipod in the other ear and keeping track of a puppy all while emerging onto a busy street ended up being more complicated than I thought. What resulted was a dog leash hopelessly tangled in a 16" jogging stroller tire. I quickly hung up (couldn't tell Aaron we were having "issues") and tried to untangle it. The problem was that in order to do that I had to unhook the dog leash which meant I had to hold on to the dog's collar so I only had one hand to untangle the leash. Thankfully, baby remained peacefully sleeping but after I spend about 10 min bent over with my HUGE rear end in the air for all of Aliso Viejo to see (yes if you saw the giant rear on Alicia this morning that was me!) I was starting to get frustrated. It was then that I remembered one of the "exciting" features of my fancy jogging stroller were "quick release wheels"! (why would anyone want to quickly release wheels I had wondered! now I knew!) I deftly with one hand held the dog collar, with the other released the wheel, with my SHOULDER supported the now two wheeled jogger (baby still slept!) and got the leash off in one piece. Whew! We made it home finally but I think the puppy is going to stay home from now on.