Race Day Mornings

On Thursday, I was up early with my friends to do a long run on Pikes Peak. I remember being very groggy, sort of sick to the stomach and tired when the alarm went off at 5 am. I told myself to sleep in this Saturday, and do a long run later.

Fast forward to today, Saturday. It’s 5:30 and I’ve been up for a while. After a good run on Wednesday, I signed up for the 10K Classic today. I believe my brain tricked my body into thinking that two 5 am starts in one week was fine. I know, many of you runners out there routinely start at 5 am so I can’t complain too much.

I don’t need to be up at these ungodly hours. I could easily be lying in bed. But here I am, nursing my cup of coffee and waiting to head out the door soon for another race.

My brain keeps coming back to the word “Goal.” I have a goal of completing the Ascent. To achieve that, I need to put in my hours of due diligence. The discipline is good for me as a mother, a wife and a person. It’s not easy and this morning, I’m really not feeling too excited about heading down to stand in line with at least a few hundred souls at the port a lets, or to elbow my way through the first mile of the race. But I know once I get there, I’ll be excited and ready and at the end, so glad I did it! And that is what I think accomplishing a goal should feel like!