3am: Adventure Time!

Usually, I run approximately zero miles between the hours of 7pm-5am. But someone around here registered for a 12 hour overnight race in July, so I figured it was time to start getting in some late night/early morning time on feet. And I needed a mid-week long run since I'm not running Muddy Sneaker on Saturday, though I will be there to spectate. (Dressed like Tigger. Obviously. When you get a chance to be Tigger, you take it. Thanks and bounces to Jenn for letting me borrow her costume!). So I figured there's no time like zero three hundred on a Thursday to get this party started. Though when my alarm went off at 3am, it felt less like a party and more like the aftermath of the apocalypse. It was eerily quiet as I left my house, a little before 3:30am, and ran to Cobb's Hill. No pedestrians, no cars, no sounds. Nothing. Rarely do I experience such silence and stillness. There's a special kind of magic in the pre-dawn hours. The day, yet to unfold, is all tabula rasa and possibility.

I arrived at Cobb's Hill around 4am and commenced my favorite hill repeats, up the gravel hill to the top of the reservoir, down the road and back around to the bottom of the hill. My second time up the hill I already felt tired. My legs and back were still sore from Fit1 on Monday. But I have become quite fond of the soreness. I still don't look like I have any muscles at all, so the soreness of a good strength workout is like a postcard from my muscles, like hey, we're still here, getting all SWOL and shit, staying hip to the current slang. Also, we like peanut butter. When the second hill repeat already felt like a struggle, I began to have serious doubts about my ability to even finish this run, let alone run in circles for 12 freaking hours. But the hills, man. They give you what you need. The more hills I ran, the better I felt. I always lose count of how many I've done, so this time I decided to pick up a rock on each uphill and leave them at the top to mark my progress. Running downhill after my 10th hill, I saw Gustavo and his 5am Fit1 class. They were the first people I'd seen all morning. I did 4 more hills after that, for a total of 14, the most consecutive times I've ever run up Cobbs.

Thanks to G for taking a pic of my makeshift rock abacus!

A little before 5:30am, I headed towards Winton Rd to meet up with Chris and join his last easy run before leaving for the Boston marathon. We met at the intersection by Wegmans, then headed back towards Cobb's hill, where I waved to Michael, who was riding his bike to 6am Fit1, and then back to my house. Chris continued on towards his house and I continued on towards my shower and then towards a peanut butter-blueberry waffle sandwich. I ended up with just over 16 miles. All in all, it was a successful first pre-sunrise adventure. It remains to be seen how successful I will be at staying awake at work for the rest of the day. I stopped to get a vanilla bean latte at Glen Edith on my way to work, but I have a feeling more caffeine might be required this afternoon, lest I pass out at 5pm tonight. I have a long way to go before July! Miles to go before I sleep!

Lyric of the moment: "And if all that you are, is not all you desire, then come…Come, come alone. Come with fear, come with love. Come however you are, just come. Come alone, come with friends, come with foes. Come however you are, just come. Come alone, come with me, then let go. Come however you are, just come..." ~Damien Rice "Trusty And True" (Because it's like the siren song of the hills, calling all those who want to be more awesome).