Tuesday 5:20 a.m. – No Running This Morning
Cheryl (my wife): Flipping on the light, “Scott, are you getting up and running?”
Scott: Groggily, “It’s not even 4:30. My alarm clock didn’t go off yet.”
Cheryl: “It’s twenty after 5.”
Scott: Rolling over to look at the clock, “Ugh. I set the alarm. How did I sleep through it? I don’t want to get off plan.”
Due to the time, 5:20 a.m., it was too late to gear up, go out running and in addition, get ready for work on time. Since these e-mails have stressed finding a way to stick to plan, it seems I should do the same. In my narrow world, early morning runs are a sweet spot. Late day runs just don’t have the same appeal so I do my best to avoid them. Late day may work for you. Everyone is different. Consequently, our world seems to be divided into those running early in the morning and those running late in the day, after work.
With a car in the shop, Cheryl and I are carpooling to work. Because Cheryl estimated she’d be by Garden Spot Village around 6:30 p.m. to pick me up she suggested I go running before she gets there. Not my first choice but gearing up shortly after 5:00 p.m. would provide plenty of time to run 4 and be back before 6:30. Hence, a plan was born.
The Run
Tonight at 5 o’clock, I did an out and back along the final 2 miles of the marathon course. The out part was a bit, ummm . . . , what’s the word I’m looking for – underwhelming? Probably because I wasn’t too excited about the idea. Rapid pulse. Hard to breath. Couldn’t settle into a rhythm. It felt like I’d been running far more than 2 miles before the GPS called out .5 miles. You know the feeling. Finally, everything turned around at the turnaround.
The rhythm settled in and all the vitals settled down. It was totally different.
Thank the good Lord! Maybe because in my head I was running the final 2 miles of race day. Just cranking out those last two. Making the turn onto campus I could see and hear the people cheering. My pace picked up. I felt good. As I made the final turn into the shoot I realized the last several hundred feet were on a slight decline and a final burst of energy propelled me past the “F” in the middle of the road marking the finish line. Turns out . . . the late day run wasn’t too bad after all.
Why We Do It
Isn’t that why we do all this running? All the training. All the miles. All the wonderful runs. All the miserable runs. The aches. The pains. The discipline. The ups. The downs. The cheers. The encouragement. Finally, crossing that finish line!
People think we’re crazy for running 13.1 or 26.2 miles and maybe we are. But then they don’t understand “the zone”, the sense of accomplishment or the shear exhilaration of crossing the finish line. Only runners know.
See you April 8th.
Run On!
Scott Miller
Garden Spot Village Marathon | Half Marathon, RD