5:45 am Alarm goes off and my first thought is “crap” {that’s putting it nicely}. I hit snooze for 10 minutes and roll over. Then all of a sudden, I have to pee. Seriously, urgh! A few minutes later the “snooze” alarm goes off, not cool. That’s it, I’m up and I might as well go for a run.

I put my running clothing on, {let my parents know I’m leaving as they are visiting} walk outside, let my Garmin find the satellite to connect and I lace up my runners. Pretty sure I’m still half asleep.  0:00 {START} appears on my Garmin…guess it’s time to run.

Off I go…..up a long incline. I hate running. Really, why am I doing this? How am I going to run a half marathon? Seriously, what was I thinking? Okay, first hill done…I’m good. I now just have to run up English Mountain Road. Why am I doing this again? Oh right, because the Maritime Race Weekend route is hilly – gotta train on hills if I want to run/race on hills.

Crows….friggin’s crows on the road. Great, I get to run past road kill. No, wait……it’s just a McDonald’s bag and wrappers. Seriously people, did you have to throw that OUT your car?

Shit…look at that hill. What was I thinking this morning when I thought it would be a good idea to run up this hill? I mean, I did ride my bike up this hill on Sunday. That may have been a struggle but I did it so I should be able to run up it too. {NOTE: this is a massive MASSIVE hill…I only went up the first little bit}.

You got this! Run to the post box, that’s it. Head down….don’t look up. Shit, I looked up. Oh my god, I’m barely there. Manure. Gross…run faster and maybe you won’t smell it. That didn’t work but I reached that dam post box and now I get to glide down that hill I just climbed up.

Oh look….Spittle Road…another hill…..let’s do it! Not so bad, might as well keep running a bit more down this road. Morning Cow’s! Apparently, cows aren’t too friendly in the morning. Back up the little hill and onto the main road.

This is great, I haven’t even seen a car yet! First car backs out of driveway ahead of me…oh, guess I saw my first car. In the background I hear a car coming down the hill and see an 18 wheeler coming in my direction. Great, I’m just going to move off the road. Yes, I was running in the middle of the road – why wouldn’t you when there is no traffic around? Just my luck both vehicles pass each other beside me and I feel like I could have been blown over by the sheer force of wind from the 18 wheeler. Not cool buddy, not cool.

As I run down the last hill I start to turn left but realise it wasn’t the street I wanted, so I had to make a quick maneuver to keep running straight which I’m pretty sure made me look like a drunk person dancing on the street. Oh well.

I got closer to my house and just start pushing my speed, it felt great. I quickly glanced left and then right to make sure no cars are coming before I cross over another road to speed down my street. 5k done! Even managed a 5:31 pace for my last kilometre – wow, I still got it.

As I sat down to catch my breath, sweat dripping off my body {it happens}, I felt great and really happy I didn’t hit snooze a second time. I wanted to avoid running in today’s heat and that I can check off my list. Tonight, I will relax, drink a beer to two, watch some Netflix and probably fold some laundry….ha ha. Life of a mother runner/husband away.

Early morning runs to avoid the heat – yes or no?

How often do you hit the snooze button on an early morning run day?