Waking Up.

When my alarm went off at 5:45 am this morning, it was still dark out. Every fiber in my being said, "Diana, what are you doing! It's Saturday! You are crazy!"

I hit the snooze alarm and debated back and forth whether I should go. After the blizzard Thursday night and Friday, I wasn't too keen on running outside in potentially icy conditions.

I decided not to go, but a few minutes later I realized I was too awake to go back to sleep, and knew how disappointed I would be if I didn't.

So I got up, had my usual power breakfast of oatmeal with peanut butter and raisins, planted the address of the park into my GPS, and pulled into a parking lot to find a large group of other runners huddled about and stretching.

It was early! I felt as if I was a member of some kind of secret club that most people sleep through. We ran for 75 minutes today- started at 7:15 and ended at 8:30- just looping around the park over and over. I decided to go without the ipod and instead chatted with a few different stranger-teammates, and the time flew... Coach Dave said I did a really good job today. I did notice that I was running at a faster pace than most of the group from the beginning.

My right knee started bothering me a bit, but other than that- I was fine, I was so happy that I didn't really get out of breath at all. After the run was over, a bunch of the group headed to a nearby museum for a nutrition clinic. Even though I'm a nutritionist at Lucille Roberts, I wanted to show my face and do the team thing and try to get to know people more. I'm glad I went because we got to sample a bunch of different sport endurance products that I haven't tried yet, and some of them were really good! (Some of them were so gross. GU? Yuck.)

By the time I left at 11 am I felt like I had already had a very productive day with good people. I was fully intending to go to the gym, but my coaches keep warning me not to overtrain, and I realize how exhausted I am running for over an hour on less than 5 hours of sleep. I really need to get a nap in because I'm going out to the city tonight and will probably be getting back home really late.

I'm really glad I woke up this morning. It was tough, but it was worth it, and I keep getting reminders that this is all for a very good cause, and it feels good to do something that matters, even if it isn't easy.