Starting the day off right

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."
-John Bingham, running speaker and writer

I really like that quote. It's so true - the most important step is the first one. Last night, I was determined to get up in the morning at 5:30 and head out to run. Well, 5:30 came really early and I was still tired. So I stayed in bed for about 15 more minutes, just waking up. Finally got up and was out the door by 6:10. Later than I'd planned, but a reasonable hour nonetheless.

I have found that the first mile is always the hardest. It doesn't matter where I'm running; it could be downhill, flat, whatever. It is always difficult. After that first mile though, I'll have found my stride and I can pretty much keep going for a while. As I started, I was trying to decide if I wanted to run 3 or 4 miles. But then I remembered that my training schedule was for 4 miles today, and I need to stick to that.

It is really hard to get out of bed and get my runs done. I could come up with a million excuses as to why I should stay in bed. But that's all they are: excuses. I've made the decision to live a healthy life and I've completely changed who I am. It was almost exactly a year ago that I made this decision. The old me feels like such a distant memory... I love that.

I'm happy that I got out of bed this morning and chose to run 4 miles. I started my day off right and I could not be happier.