The Dedicated Runner

I wasn't able to run last night. My wife works retail and has to work late on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the holiday season. Our landlord was coming over in the evening, and I had a 15 miler on my schedule. My choices were to run from 9-11 last night or get up at 4:00 and run this morning. I knew running late was a bad option. After I run, I can't sleep until my body settles down. It usually takes at least an hour or two. I didn't want to be awake until well after midnight if I could avoid it. That left running in the morning.

I set the alarm for 4:00 a.m.; I was out of bed by 4:10; and was running by 4:30. I realize this isn't a big deal to many runners. However, if you knew how many times I've set the alarm with the goal of a morning run only to re-set it and go back to sleep in the morning, you'd realize how amazing it is that I actually ran this time. I was planning on still running my six mile recovery run this afternoon. However, I gave blood at work this morning, so I'll play an evening run by ear.

The funny thing was for the ten minutes between when the alarm went off and when I got out of bed, I was thinking that when I go back to sleep and don't run, I'll have to write another blog entry about my lack of dedication.

I averaged close to ten seconds slower per mile this morning than I usually run, but I'll take it. 15 miles in 2:00:14.