Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Love/Hate

" I think there's only one sensible place for a person to be @ 5:30 in the morning. That's in bed. And what am I doing? I'm out running. And I completely hate this."

Derek Clayton, Australian marathoner, first to break 2:09

Daily, I get sent an email called Daily Kick in the Butt from Runner's World. This one arrived in my inbox yesterday and provided what I thought was a great stimulus for discussion.

I love running. Make no bones about it. Outside of my family, it is what I look forward to every day. My schedule being what it is during the school year necessitates me getting up and out the door before 5 am on most days to get my miles in so that I after work, I can spend time with my family. Would I like to sleep in? Sure? And on some days I do, but rarely.

Talking to a friend (cyclist aka: asphalt gobbler) of mine at work about this quote and in discussion of what some people might refer to as selfishness on our part for dedicating a large part of our lives to our respective endeavors, we mutually agreed that for what it is those sports have made us who are. We don't know any other way.

Don't get me wrong. Initially, I had lots of reasons to hate running in the early morning. The colder temps, low visibility and darkness provided me with a rather gloomy beginning to each day. However, as I have become accustomed to it, I now on most days now love it. There is a certain peacefulness to ambling along before most people have thought about hitting the snooze button or get out on the road, and to be honest, there is a lot less traffic! It has given me time to work ideas out, visualize what might be coming up through the day, and starts the day off on a great note.

I'll put it to the people. What say you? Love or Hate?

2 comments:

Timothy Finkelstein said...

Love...a real path to real happiness that extends to all areas and endeavors in life.

Sun Runner said...

I like running in the morning. Unfortunately I wasn't motivated enough to continue once winter arrived in full force. Too dark, too cold, too dangerous. Once the weather warms and the sky is light earlier, I will be back out there at dawn. I loved running in the early morning last summer. It was so peaceful. Most of the time it was just me and the birds.