Motivation

Running is hard work again. With my foot bothering me this spring, I decided to give my poor arch a chance to heal, and only ran a few times all summer long. But it's time to get back to work.

For the past 3 weeks, I have gotten up at 6 am to get my run in. And it's been tough! Whew!

Last year at this time we were in South Dakota, and I was getting up at 6am (just like I'm doing now) to run for a half hour (just like I'm doing now) and it was a peaceful way to start my day. It was rare that I would see a person, or a moving car on my whole run. I would occasionally see a paper boy or someone walking a dog, but mostly it was just me and the sunrise.

Here's how my run went this morning:

When my watched beeped at 5:55am I told myself I would run in the afternoon. But after about 2 minutes I talked myself into getting out of bed to at least go on a walk. I put on my running shoes, turned on my iPod, and, singing along with ABBA, walked out the front door at 6:08am. It was a little cool this morning, maybe in the 70's, and though it was bright out, the sun was still behind the mountains to the east of us, so I didn't have to worry about the sun in my eyes.

I stopped at the curb to stretch my calves and noticed several soldiers walking through the parking lot near our home, headed to the field behind our house. They were each wearing the required black shorts, grey ARMY t-shirt, and attractive day-glow orange belt. I had on grey shorts, and a pink shirt. No belt. I felt a little under accessorized.

I started jogging through our quiet neighborhood, and it seemed to be a lovely peaceful morning until I decided to go left instead of right, and I encountered a huge pack of soldiers stretching out for their morning PT. I'm not sure why this surprised me, I know they're out there every day, but I guess just forgot.

This is the point where I start to feel a little silly. Is my stride okay? Is my sports bra doing it's job? Please don't trip on the curb...

I got past them and began to enjoy my run.

When my watched beeped 15 minutes, I headed back toward home and I really wanted to walk for a minute, but there was a group of 6 Army guys a little bit ahead of me, heading my way, and I didn't want them to see me walk. So I kept running.

Then I went around a curve and I was definitely going to walk, but there was another couple Army girls and I didn't want to look like a wimp, so I kept running and I found that I didn't really need to walk after all. By then I was nearing our neighborhood and I saw that the field was full of Army guys (and girls) doing different exercises with their groups. Some were doing lunges, some were doing push ups, some were laying on their backs doing crazy bicycle legs, some were doing pull ups at the bars, but most were just standing, facing the road I was running on... so I had to keep running...

...and wiping the sweat off my mustache and brow (I am sweaty, okay. And also it's a little humid here.) I happened to look down and I noticed that my pink shirt was sweaty in a not-so-attractive way, and I wished I had worn my black t-shirt....waaaa...

I usually feel almost invisible, but this morning I felt like an awkward middle schooler - like every one's eyes were on me (though I'm sure that wasn't really true.)

I was embarrassed, and feeling a little silly, so I gave myself a pep-talk as I had to turn the corner and run right along-side the field: no one is looking. no one cares. you look marvelous. nice legs. go wendy!

I ran the entire 30 mintues this morning, and I felt great! I miss the peace of a quiet morning run, but it's always motivating to run with the Army!