It seems that it takes the fall to be in full swing for me to get myself in gear and start training. It was at this time last year that I decided to embark on training for my first ever five mile Turkey Trot. So just in time for the cooler weather to give me every excuse to not get out of bed in the morning and go run, I decide let’s do it again! Fortunately, this weekend was beautiful. So when my husband asked me what I wanted to do and my mother in law so graciously wanted to visit with the kids, I said “Let’s go for a run!” He was a little surprised and admittedly I was also a bit surprised that those words came out of my mouth. I mean, who decides to go for a run on the most beautiful fall day that happens to be the first time in forever that you and your husband have a babysitter? Yup, ME!

So we dropped the kids off at his moms and made our way to the trail to get in a quick run. The trail was full of all kinds of people riding bikes and running, walking and enjoying the day. We parked at the top of what is called “The 100 Stairs” and started from there. In order to get to the path we had to descend the stairs so that was a mild warm up. We stretched at the bottom and got going. Considering I had not been running in about two months, I decided to keep the pace light and easy. Immediately, I knew that this was not going to be the “easy” run I thought it might be. My legs were screaming at me to stop but the beauty of the day, my heart and my head said keep going. On top of that, as we were running, my father-in-law appeared on the path coming towards us. He was in the midst of his 7 or 8 mile run but decided to change course and join us. So here I am running with my husband and his father. There was no way I was going to stop running and walk. I determined that it didn’t matter how slow I went I was going to keep going. There was a point at which they were barely in my view but I told my husband to keep going and I would catch up. They reached the turn around a minute or three ahead of me and we reconnected to head back to the stairs. My father in law ran ahead to keep his pace and my husband jogged along with me. I told him to keep his pace but he decided to hang in there with me. He was conserving his energy so he could run those stairs.

The beauty of the day was matched by the fact that I ran 2.34 miles in 33:50. That was an average speed of 4.1mph and an average pace of 14:29min/mi. I am proud of those numbers as a restarting point. I intend to run for the rest of the fall to train for a 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving in November. What is encouraging about my first run of the fall is that I know that with a few more runs under my belt I will be back in stride in no time. I am grateful that my husband is so supportive and that is what “Team Fit Mommy” is all about!

I will be writing updates on my progress until I run the race in November. Come back and check my progress. Are you training for an upcoming race? Join the conversation, tell us about your training.