I love all things autumnal. The hint of a chill in the air, the beautiful colors of the changing leaves, the whistles of football practice, the addition of pumpkin flavoring to my caffeinated indulgences...all of it.
It's also my favorite time of year to run. I've learned that I don't relish the heat when it comes to running...the colder, the better. And so it is that last night I found myself going for my first post-pregnancy run, Starnes by my side (as it should be). It hurt a little less than I thought it would...and it might have only been two miles...(two miles that conveniently ended up at Bob's Big Gas Subs and Pub where they just happened to need two willing girls to partake of the season's first Dogfish Head Punkin Ales). But hey, it's a start! And I suppose that's how I suddenly find myself signed up for the inexplicably longer (?!) Salem Lake Trail Run at the end of this month...
It's different this year, in all the right ways. Here I sit, coffee still at the ready, but now with my baby boy sleeping soundly in his sling while I blog about running and friends and coffee and living. Definitely an improvement on an already sweet life.
So this fall brings with it the usual pleasures - college football (starts tonight, holycowyay!) and Pumpkin Spice Lattes (coming Tuesday, holycowyay!) - but new and improved versions of fun, too. The Autodrop Invitational launches one month from today...autumnal goodness on a bike. That crazy endeavor comes just one week after the 3rd Non-Annual City Loop Mafia 100K...always an adventure, firmly anchored by friends and chili and beer and football. And my 10-year college reunion at William & Mary is right around the corner (Confusion Corner, that is)...I can hardly wait for that special weekend in October with all my friends (and all of our husbands and babies!) in Colonial Williamsburg. And to be sure, we'll end up hiking in the mountains with a baby (and his Bjorn) in tow. Good times!
And who knows? Maybe another half marathon looms somewhere in the distance...flanked as usual by all kinds of other crazy adventures with all kinds of crazy family and friends...mmm, lovely lovely fall...
