My run this morning was forced. Not the steps, but rather the time. Because I insist on starting work early (or at least showing up) I’m not a morning runner on weekdays. I figure I’m up at 5:00 a.m. as it is, getting up earlier just seems a little… wrong.
But today was different. Today is already planned, taken up by incoming flights and driving. By early meetings at work followed by rushing out of the office saying “sorry, I have to go.” One look at Tuesday on this week’s calendar, and you’d see- there’s just no room for running.
So I decided it would have to happen early or not at all. Pre-dawn, or not at all. I got myself to bed at a decent hour (requiring a plan in itself), set the alarm for 3:50 a.m. (I know!) and set out my running clothes. To be honest, I gave myself a 50/50 chance of actually getting out of bed.
Somehow, though, I did it. The alarm went off, and I sat up. Wide awake; the kind of awake you are when you know you could lie back down, but you wouldn’t sleep. So I got up. I changed my clothes, glanced at myself in the mirror, grabbed my Garmin and was out the door. I pushed ‘Start’ at 4:01 a.m. It’s a little frightening to even think about that. It feels very unreal, even if there are people that do it every day.
It took me about a mile to settle in, to get over the feeling that someone was going to “get” me. I have a fairly constant, sometimes irrational fear of being gotten. Once that feeling passed, and I realized I was probably able to at least out run (if not pepper spray) anyone else out at 4:00 in the morning, I started to enjoy it.
The air was cool and almost crisp. It was lovely to feel more heat generated by me than by the environment around me, as has been the case with every other run this Summer. It was quiet, so peacefully quiet. The only souls I passed were a cat lying in the middle of the street, basking under the light of the streetlamp, and two paper delivery folks. All three stared at me like I was the crazy one. They’re probably right.
I didn’t feel crazy, though. I felt great. And as I kept track of the time, I kept telling myself it wasn’t “wake up time” yet. It was as if I was running before I was actually up. Ironically, once the clock neared 5:00 and I was near home, I did feel more awake. I watched a few minutes of the news, and then went about the morning as if I hadn’t just covered more than five miles.
It feels good to have done more before 5:00 a.m. than many people will do all day. I might just have to get into this pre-dawn thing.