Dragons

I've never been a person who has been able to just wake up every morning and go for a run. Even in the afternoons, I need coaxing to get my body moving. Normally a series of lies (we'll go easy, we'll just go for 20 minutes...) is enough to push me on my way. Once out, usually, the story changes.

The miracle isn't that I finished...it's that I had the courage to start.

Yesterday, admittedly, I woke up, turned off my alarm, and rolled back over for another hour of sleep. That's right, so not only did I not go for the run -- but I actually ended up sleeping later than I would if I had just woken up on a non-AM run day. I'm sure glad I didn't go though. It was miserable out (by my sunny Tucson standards) all day. The wind was blowing, the chill was icy, and the sky just had that look that is totally dreary but shows no signs of actually doing anything -- as if it could just stay there and contain you in this windy little icebox town forever. Sometimes I think it is just best to write a morning like that off every now and again.

But today was different. Pissed as all hell about my decision to get out of bed (and even more irritated that the only people I could blame were myself and Logan -- who had been ripping on me for not getting out yesterday morning), I slipped on my only long-sleeve shirt (which I bought about two weeks ago) and walked to the porch to get my shoes. Stepping back in and lacing up, I had to double-check to make sure I hadn't just stepped into the freezer a moment ago because it was cold as shit out there. I went back to my room, grabbed my Pima warm-ups, hat, and gloves and lickity-split, I was out the door.

My neighbor has some sort of leak or something that runs out of her planter and all along the road. I watched the steam rising as I headed out for my run. The whole way, all I could think was, how do people do this? If I lived in a cold climate, I'd be a billiards champion or something -- but never a runner. Not even a treadmill marathon world record runner. Then on the way back, I stopped to grab a drink at the water fountain on the west end of ODC.

FROZEN!

Like, I could see the ice in the spout.

It'd really better warm-up (or at least not be windy) because I still haven't come up with this afternoon's workout but it'd really help me if it's not balls cold out when I am trying to run.

On that note, I found this picture on the SAR website (which, I think, should have a gallery where SAR members can upload/access photos from different races/events around town). The kid in the red Foot Locker shirt is, obviously, running with an iPod. Anyways, I just wanted to point out that I came up by him about half a mile into the race and I could totally hear his music from a good ways away. When I got close, I could totally tell it was just some raging speed metal. I asked him if it was Bodom but he was just all focused on the race ahead. I asked a couple more times, with no responses, before moving on. I'd have to say that wasted energy was the difference between an 18:43 and a 17:05. I won't make that mistake again.....