Yesterday, I rolled out of bed at 4am, threw on my thigh high tube socks and met up with my Petaluma Mother Cluckers Running Group to make our way by ferry to San Francisco for Bay to Breakers, a costumed running party, 12K from downtown to Ocean Beach. We pinned on homemade tail feathers, donned matching sweatbands and HenHouse Brewing Company tees, and nested in a crowd scattered with nearly naked old men, tortillas flying through the air at the starting line, before making our way through neighborhood street parties and Golden Gate Park until reaching the finish line. 

Before I had kids I fancied myself a runner. At one point I had a serious regimen- several times a week I would get up and run a few miles in the hilly neighborhoods of Berkeley before going to work. I would go for a runs on vacation. I would run in the rain, or at night. I seemed to just need it. I love the way I feel when I'm in shape, and I love to be outside. When I got pregnant with Jasper I tried to keep fit, doing prenatal yoga and walking for exercise, and after I had him I did a baby boot camp to get my running mojo back, but it was never really my thing to run with a stroller, and somehow that was it, I didn't run anymore.