100 Words Per Mile: The Last Bits of "Before"

Mucus plugs. 5ks. Guilty pleas.

October 9, 2021
3.10 miles
21:09

It’s funny. On my own, I just can’t seem to push myself. But when the competition arrives, I find a gear I didn’t know was there.

Also, my wife lost her mucus plug!

I signed up for this 5k after my encouraging performance in the 10k. I didn’t think I could break 22:00 in a 3.1 mile race, but thanks to a (perhaps ill-advised) fast start, I succeeded and made it possible to qualify for the same starting group in the 15k as Bill.

But honestly, all that is boring because my wife lost her mucus plug!

I’d been reading up on signs that labor is near (contractions, bloody show, mucus plug) and wasn’t sure this was one we’d get to experience. Some women never notice it, or it doesn’t even happen until they are already in the delivery room. My wife felt a discharge kind of work its way out, and because we are grossly intimate, she really wanted me to see it.

And voila! We’re anywhere between hours and weeks until labor begins—ha!