Very Early Morning

After a day off yesterday, apparently my body was ready to get moving.  At around 2:45 this morning, I was wide awake.  I had planned on waking up at 4:30 and then go for a run, back home to shower then bike to work.  I stayed in bed trying to get back to sleep and realized a little after 3:00 that it wasn’t going to work.  I decided I had three options: stay in bed awake, watch some TV or go ahead for the run.  I guess the inner triathlete in me said, “RUN!”  So I did.

I took my time (I had plenty after all!) going to the bathroom, getting dressed and stretching.  I leashed up Althea, said goodbye to Diego and we were off.  I had to run without the IPod this morning as I wanted to, due to some kind of glitch with it.  I think the battery is dead.  Melissa and I have debated several times over whether or not running with music or running without so you can hear the birds, your breathing, etc. is better.  I probably would have always run with music except that it is illegal in competition at triathlons.  Once I started running without, I realized there are some benefits, but I do still enjoy the music especially when all I expected to hear at 4:00 AM was the occasional car and barking dogs.

We ended up running to the Peach Stand (if you know Fort Mill, you should know where that is) and back.  Total mileage was 6.2 miles.  I did it at a steady pace of just over 10 minute miles and it felt good.

The only issues I had again related to the lack of sidewalks along Doby’s Bridge Rd.  It must have been a new moon for where there were no street lights or cars around I could not see a thing.  Add to that a car coming at me with its bright lights on and I was perfectly blinded.  I felt like that deer must feel when it encounters such a car.  Add more to that a roadway that has no shoulder whatsoever and a 4 inch drop from the asphalt to the dirt and you have me running down the road with a car coming (I got over a bit in case they weren’t paying attention) and I drop off the edge.  I rolled my left ankle a good bit, but luckily I didn’t hurt anything.  I yelled out a few choice words regarding the lack of sidewalks and I hope there were no kids awake around that area.  I need to see what it would take for the city to put some in.  Anybody have any ideas?

Here are the stats.

I got back home a little after 5:00 and just took my time cooling off and cleaning up.  I showered, went to the bathroom again and got dressed for the ride to work.

The ride in was uneventful, thankfully, and the weather was actually quite nice.  I will add more on the ride home, including the usual stats as well at a later time.

It’s too bad I have to work late tonight or this would be shaping up to be a perfect day!