Trial run.

Today I returned to running.  Not for very long:  I started with just five minutes.  But it was a good start.

I signed MJ and Milo into the child care, but Oscar came with me and Leo up to the track.  As we headed up the stairs we passed a quartet of women coming down, toting yoga mats.  One cooed at Leo.  "Oh!  So new!  How old?"

"Thanks!"  I said with a big smile.  "He's six weeks."

"Beautiful!" she said as she went down the stairs.  From around the corner I heard another of the women tell her, "That's her fourth baby — can you believe it!"  I didn't recognize her — I must be famous.  (Stairclimber sessions at 9 months pregnant — to turn the baby — will do that, I suppose.)  That comment made my day.

There's a little stretching area in an alcove off the indoor track, with mats and posters of muscular anatomy and a couple of Pilates balls.  I had Oscar sit on the mat, and Leo slept nestled on a folded sling in the V of his outstretched legs.  "Pick him up if he cries," I instructed him.  No worries.  Oscar read a chemistry book he'd brought, placidly earning a nickel a minute.

I walked briskly for five minutes, craning my neck to check on my boys at every lap, and then broke into a run.  It felt so good for the first couple of laps, all those muscles working the way I remember — except my sports bra isn't nearly as supportive as I hoped it would be, darn it, there's another errand I have to run this week.  The next couple of laps I got winded, and after that I got pretty slow.   But I was huffing and puffing and had broken a sweat by the time five minutes had gone by, when I pulled the earbuds out of my ears and went to fetch Leo back from Oscar.

I scooped the baby up, and a white-bearded gentleman from the next mat said to me, "Oh gosh, that was such a great sight.  I wish you could have taken a picture of those two boys together.  What a great way to make sure you take care of yourself."

I smiled and thanked him as I stuffed Leo into the pouch sling.  Then I led Oscar out onto the track for an impromptu lesson in Running Track Etiquette and Safety.  The learning never ends, my friends.