5:00am

5:02am

Always have a backup. The first alarm goes off at five in the morning from my phone. It is a very subtle soft “beep” that progressively gets louder. It hardly goes beyond one or two beeps, but if it goes on too long alarm number two kicks in. I NEVER want number two to kick in. It is loud obnoxious and would wake up my wife and possibly the kids. Number two has gone off twice. Those were bad mornings. I prefer good mornings. One or two soft beeps and I roll, literally roll, out of bed. Silently I grab my running clothes. I tiptoe down the stairs, guided my the glowing screen of my phone, grab my GPS watch and fill up my water bottle. It is dark and early. I need no motivation. I am itchin’ to run. Craving the asphalt. Ready to consume miles for breakfast. Knowing there will be a few of my running club friends meeting me at our normal pharmacy parking lot meet-up location, I jump in my car and crank up the music.

I didn’t always wake up at 5:00am. Three years ago I would have thought the idea of getting up that early was insane and made no sense unless you were catching a plane. Until the end of 2011 my normal waking time was 6:30am or 7:00am. I was never tired, but then again I was never tired.

Until the end of 2011 I knew little about running. I didn’t run at all.

That was before I became, for lack of a better word, crazy.

There were no work out clothes.
There were no running shoes.
There was no fitness.
I was 45lbs heavier.
I was sedentary.
I was lazy.