This morning I ran to work. I’ve been talking about it for a while, and I finally made it happen. Yesterday I brought a change of clothes and left them in my office, along with the stuff I needed but didn’t want to carry when I was running. Which was, basically, everything: my wallet, my bus pass, my cell phone, my iPod (I don’t run with my iPod), yadda yadda.
Then, this morning, I got up before 5 AM, threw my contacts in, took my vitamins, got into my running clothes and shoes, and headed out the door. It’s taken me about 2 hours to walk downtown before, so I figured that would give me enough time to run and have time left over to shower and change. I was out the door at about 5:10 AM.
I started running about 5 blocks from my house. From there to the head of the trail is about 1/2 mile (according to Yahoo Maps), then I stopped to do some quick stretches, then ran the rest of the distance, all the way to the Hawthorne Bridge, another 3.8 miles according to the signs on the trail.
There wasn’t many folk on the trail at that time of day; I saw two lone bikers and a racoon. Once I got going I found it very peaceful. On my previous runs I’ve found it necessary to think about other things; plans, or my stories, anything but the run. But this morning I was able to either just notice the scenery around me, or zone out entirely and just move.
I walked the rest of the distance to my office, but in the future I plan on running across the bridge, which should make it a 5-mile run. I did feel a pang of guilt that I didn’t go the full 5 miles today, but that was immediately followed by the positive voice in my head telling the negative voice to shut the fuck up. I mean I’d just run farther than I’d ever run before!
I got to my office at 6:28 AM, plenty of time to shower and change before I had to start at 7:00 AM.
My right hamstring is bothering me today, so I may not run again until Saturday. I’ll stretch it out and maybe even go sit in the hot tub at my gym tomorrow or Friday.