A Very Fruitful (and unlikely) Run

ORN: 9+ miles, 1:33, a little over 10:00/mile. 30mph wind, 36 degrees, 5:15am

Why would any fool go out and do a mid-week long run on a morning like this? A huge cold front coming through, I’m warm in my bed, why go out? I didn’t want to go, yet I did. And I’m glad I did.

I learned more on this run than any I can remember.

Running today was hard. Going into the wind was an exercise in near-futility. It pounded me. It was very early and very dark. Yet, I needed to get the long run in to be prepared for the 20 miler on December 17.

And as I ran, it hit me why I ran today. It was hard. And we have to do hard things.

On my to-do list at work were a number of hard things, probably 10 in total. And I really didn’t want to deal with most of them. Yet I had to.

So, as I piled through the hour and a half run, an idea hit me. I would pick only two of the hard things and get them done today. The rest would wait (hey, they’ve waited for weeks already…what’s another day?). Then, tomorrow, I’d do another two…and so on. Kind of like training. You get the miles in every day. Whether you feel like it or not. And the cumulative effect lets us run long races. Amazingly.

I’m sure I provided some early-morning comic relief to folks out driving as they saw this crazy guy, head down, into the wind and cold. But better was the lesson I learned.

Persevere.