An Early Morning Run Feels So Good

My alarm went off at 4:30 this morning.  I admit, I did hit the snooze once, but that still got me out of bed by 4:40.  This is rare for me.  I always go to bed with intentions of waking by 5:00 to get in that early run, but that rarely happens.  I can't seem to make myself get out of bed.  Once I'm up, I'm golden, but putting both feet on the ground is quite possibly the hardest part of my day.

This morning was different.  The reason?  One word, or actually one name...Allison.  My wonderful friend, Allison, is solely responsible for getting my lazy rear out of bed this morning.  She asked me last night if I would like to run with her this morning.  Once I agreed, she told me that she would be at my place at 5:00.  That was all I needed...a little bit of accountability.  I knew that I couldn't reset my alarm like I am notorious for doing.  I had to be up and ready because Allison would be waiting for me.  I couldn't let her down.  Not only am I appreciative of her for being the kick in the butt that I needed, but it means a lot that she is willing to slow down her much speedier pace to run with me.

So, I crawled out of bed at 4:39 this morning.  It was so early, Roman had to be coaxed from his bed, too.  Luckily I had the presence of mind to set out my running gear the night before so i didn't have to waste time digging in the drawers trying to find a pair of matching socks.  I got dressed, fed the cats, and took Roman for a quick lap around the block so he could do his business.  Just as I was heading back inside to put Roman back in bed, Allison pulled up.  Perfect timing.

I came back downstairs, turned on the Garmin, and we were off.  There was a light rain for the whole run, but it really felt nice.  It was just warm and humid enough, that the rain was more than welcome.  It was so nice being out there so early.  I don't know when was the last time I ran down Monument Ave and only encountered a handful of cars.  We didn't even see any other runners for the longest time.  We stayed on Monument until we hit the 1.5 mile mark and then turned to head back.  We made a few turns on our way back, so we ended with just over 3 miles.  We did 3.39 miles in 34:42.  I was even pleasantly surprised to see that we managed negative splits.  That doesn't happen too often for me!

I really enjoyed this run.  I hope we can plan to make this happen at least once or twice a week.  If I keep at it, I will surely get used to the early morning wake up, right?  How do you early birds do it?  Any suggestions would be great!