The Best Laid Plans...

This post is part of the Endurance Training Summer Series. To learn more or find other team members, see our Element Endurance Team introduction

This past weekend was life altering. I ran 6.1 miles and my wife had a 7lb 15oz child.

Let's start with me and the run. It was the first “long” run of the Hal Higdon Marathon Training-- a 6 miler. I had previously charted out a sinuous 6 mile course around my neighborhood, so I figured after a little hydration, that I’d give it a go. I set out, and I took it down one perfectly cushioned step at a time (thanks to Asics for the high arch support).

It was tiring, for sure, but I found that as I approached the final mile of my course, I was just in a groove. No pain, no cramping, breathing was fine.

That is not to say my weekend was without pain, cramping or heavy breathing. Which brings me to my amazing wife and the 50% increase in the size of our family.

Sunday was labor day. My wife gave birth to our first baby boy late Sunday night. It was and is the life altering experience that I had no way of imagining beforehand. You step through the hospital door with the little seed of an idea that a baby is on the way. It does a Jack & the Beanstalk on you in the course of a day, and you walk out that same door with a fully formed human looking up at you. Despite months of preparation, you still can’t help but think, “Where’d you come from?” After four hectic days of fatherhood, I’m pretty sure the normal Hal Higdon schedule is going out the window, which will leave me to create The Jonathan Kelley Schedule of How To Run More Miles Than Your Child Is Weeks Old which could also be called How To Run More Miles Than Hours of Sleep or Coping With Mental, Physical and Emotional Exhaustion.

I’ll keep you posted on how training goes (both my own and that of baby Edgar) and whether my body (and will power) stand up to the 26.2 over the coming weeks.

Thank you for reading as I know proud fathers can ramble. Welcome, Edgar Kelley.