5am???

Yup. It sounds scary, overwhelming, and just plain too early, but that's the time I'm up and out the door eight minutes later to run 3-4 days every week. My non-running friends think I'm certifiably insane. But let's face it folks. There isn't any other time where I can have an uninterrupted hour to call my own. Trips to school, ballet lessons, the grocery store, and church meetings all seem to take precedence over a four mile run. And don't even get me started about dinner and laundry!

A few years ago when I started my running ventures, I tried to find time in the afternoons and evenings, you know, right after work. It was really hard. Something was always in the way, not to mention - I'm tired! I did manage to train for my first 5K ever that way, but please know I had only run the whole 3 miles at once just one time before the event and was trying to convince myself that I wouldn't be in last place. I'm just saying.

Then things changed. I was a parent volunteer at my son's Cub Scout day camp and another woman in the group mentioned that she got up at 5am to run. I don't remember much more about her other than she had several kids and had found no other solution. Light bulb moment! The thought had never occurred to me. So, when school started that August, I was setting my alarm for 5am. It was hard. Heck, it still IS hard! Warm covers are not exactly easy to give up on cold, dark winter mornings. And laziness is never easy to overcome!

But, I have yet to ever regret a 5am run. Need I say more?