At a Team in Training  (TNT) information session on May 5th, I signed myself up for the summer season to train for the Nike full marathon in October.

I have run with Team in Training before – back in 1999 I ran the Honolulu marathon with TNT.  Things were a bit different back then, I think I only started training in August for an early December marathon, and while I was fit I hadn’t ever run.  As a result I got a bad IT band injury, and ended up walking most of the marathon, finishing with a time of 6:30.  Since then I have run 3 ‘half marathons’ (including the Nike 1/2 marathon last year), and always wanted to run another marathon where I didn’t walk most of it!

10 yrs and 2 kids later I am ready to do this again!

I have had various levels of engagement with exercise since the kids were born.  My last job had a fabulous gym and it was only 5 miles from my home, making it reasonably easy to attend boot camps and small group training sessions.  Then I started a new job in the city in January 2009 and making time for fitness became way harder.  In order to motivate myself to actually do something, I trained for, and completed the Nike 1/2 marathon.  I completed the race in 2:39 – not quite what I had done the 2 ‘pre-kids’ 1/2 marathons in, but I completed it and was injury free (and happy!). I felt so much better getting in to fitness again, and after the half marathon was over I vowed that I would only take ‘a week or two’ off before getting in to some kind of training again.

Fast forward to April after a winter of feeling very sluggish with no exercise, and I needed to do something fast!  That’s when I thought about joining TNT. I also started personal training (which I have never done before) 2 times a week at 6am in the morning.

Already I am feeling way better, and need to do a better job of reminding myself why exercise should always be a high priority.