We're baby joggers

When I first met Jean-Louis 12 years ago, we ran together. It was the first thing we ever did together. Now, not only do we run together, we also race together. In fact, we are so compatible that we're each others pace buddies. Some times I beat him and some times he beats me. These days, he is kicking my butt!

We love to run for the exercise and fun but we're not serious by any means. We have entered in dozens of races in the past and even ran the Paris Marathon in 2003. We're sort of hard core in that we will attempt crazy events without much training. No, the marathon was not crazy. I'm actually thinking of other crazy races like the 53KM winter night walk. If you think a simple walk can't hurt you, think again. Ouch, those memories hurt.

I had a friend once tell me "couples who run together, stay together." Nice :) I was also told that there are two kinds of people in Paris, those who smoke and those who run. We were definitely running junkies there. It's a great city to run in because there are races every weekend, either in Paris or in the suburbs and the cost of entry is ridiculously cheap compared to Canada. Racing was one of the few things I actually missed about living in France.

When we raced in France and in Canada, I saw parents running and pushing their baby strollers. I remember thinking to myself how great that would be to do. When Tristan was 6 months old, we bought a jogging stroller. From the reviews I read, the Bob Ironman stroller seems to be the best stroller for running. It turns out they don't actually sell this particular stroller in any of the stores here but any store will place a special order in. We ordered ours through Jack & Lola in North Vancouver.

We love our Bob Ironman stroller! It is super lightweight and so easy to push. The trick is not to constantly have your arms on it to push, otherwise your arms get really tired. It is definitely a smooth ride for Tristan and he tends to fall asleep in it quite a bit. I also love the yellow color. After nearly a year, it still looks brand new! Because of our schedules, we only run with it once or twice a week and we haven't gone out with it in the rain yet. Yes, we like to keep things clean :)


Last summer when Tristan was 8 months old, we were totally out of shape. I hadn't run since I was 5 1/2 months pregnant and all I wanted to do was to start slow again. We were in no state to race and we had no time to train. This year, things have changed. Tristan is 20 months now and is in daycare part time. Daycare gives us the break we need to train again. It feels so great to be able to run regularly and we both feel physically stronger. Now is the time to look into possible races!

We had our minds set on the Victoria half-marathon, which is a beautiful race in October. We've done that one a couple of times and it also gives us an excuse to go over and see family. Being in October is awesome because it gives us the summer to train. When I sat down to register us, I found out that baby joggers are not permitted to race. I then quickly looked into the Vancouver half-marathon and other races and no luck :( None of them allow baby joggers. Actually, that is not entirely true. The Vancouver Sun run allows baby joggers, except that you are not allowed to jog. Then what is the point? Besides, that is the last race I would want to be in with a baby. It's completely chaotic. In fact, the race organizers say that only registered runners can run the route so we couldn't even run along for the fun of it. Sniff :( Their excuse was that their event liability insurance does not cover baby strollers. I understood that but I was just so bummed by the news. I swear I have seen baby joggers in some of those races too. Anyway, we don't want to take our chances and then get kicked out. Too bad for us.

What we need is a race just for baby joggers. Some kind of "stroll and run" event. Until I can find one, the three of us will just run together for the fun of it :) Sadly, I wanted to race with the stroller so badly but life goes on, right? By next year, Tristan may be old enough to run in his own race.