Almost a slacker… but definitely not.  Just hear me out.  I nearly went to the dark side, but I resisted!  Yes, I prevailed!

So, it all started on Tuesday night when I met with the team to run those wonderful bridges that we enjoy running every week (nope, not a hint of sarcasm in my voice).  Well, it was the last Tuesday for a few of our members because their goal is fast approaching… tomorrow, actually, they will be running a 1/2 marathon in St. Petersburg.  It was quite sad to see them take those last run photos and give each other hugs in anticipation of the upcoming race.  One of my running buddies who decided to show up (the other one was complaining of knee issues) started talking excitedly about how we should continue running together after we finish the marathon with TNT.  That sounds good to me!  Nothing beats running with someone!

Yeah, seriously, running alone just isn’t quite as fun.  On Tuesday night I also found out that none of my running buddies would be participating in today’s early morning 10-mile run.  Not that they were slackers… actually far from it.  One was going to run the St. Petersburg 1/2 marathon for fun (yes, I did say “fun”… we runners do like to run races just for fun).  The other one decided to do some sort of crazy relay race that went from the west coast of Florida all the way across the east coast (seriously, how do I even run with her?).  So, there I was on my couch on Friday night after my husband and I had just finished watching a movie.  “I don’t know… I think maybe I will just run from home tomorrow… I mean, what is the point of driving somewhere at 5:00 in the morning if I am just going to end up running alone anyway.  I don’t know…”  Basically, I spent at least an hour pondering what I was going to do.  My husband talked me into just staying home with the simple words “well, at least you wouldn’t have to wake up so early.”  Yep, that did it.  My decision was made.

So, I set my alarm for 6:00.  Woo hoo!  An extra hour to sleep in!  Well, my alarm did go off at 6:00 in the morning and I did hit snooze… or so I thought.  No, I had actually turned the alarm off and fallen back to sleep.  Needless to say, I was pretty surprised when I woke up at 7:00 to the sound of my 2-year old asking her older sister to read books to her.  Oh man, I almost plopped my head back on that pillow and said “forget it, I will run later.”  ALMOST.  I knew without a doubt that if I did not get up and run right then that I would not run at all that day.  Oh, it was way to tempting.  No one was expecting me.  I was running alone.  I have a 1/2 marathon coming up on Thursday… did I really need to do the miles?  The excuses kept pouring in, but I refused to let them consume me.  I got up and got dressed and was out in the door in 10 minutes.  Whew!

Oh wait, there is more.  I continued to have that constant mental battle with myself.  I was doing an out and back run.  Pretty simple.  Yet, as I was running to the turnaround point I kept saying to myself “oh, maybe this is far enough.  I can turnaround now.  I don’t need to run the full mileage.  Who is gonna know?”  Dang it.  I had my running phone application turned on.  As soon as I hit “end” it automatically posts my run to facebook.  That means that whoever reads anything I post (sure, not many people but I didn’t even want to disappoint the few that might) would know that I didn’t run 10 miles. So, I pushed myself to that turnaround point and got annoyed when I looked at my phone to see that it said 4.68 miles.  Keep going Heidi.  You can’t turn around until it says 5!  When I got there, I had no choice but to run all the way home (it would have been too embarrassing to call my husband and tell him to come get me).  And you know what?  I ran exactly 10.0 miles.  Not 9.6, not 10.2, but exactly 10 miles.  I did it.

What is the moral of the story?  I truly like the idea of having other runners around to keep my head in the game.  I know that I have to show up when someone is expecting me and I know that I must stick with my training if I want to keep up with the Superwomen I run with.   If you want to do it too, I recommend finding one or more running buddies.  They are the best motivators!