It had a bit of a rough start today. The night before I had set the alarm to allow me enough time to get my business together prior to this morning’s run. The alarm went off at 6:30 beeping at me like it was going out of style. I thought I’d set the alarm to play the radio instead of the bell, so in irritation I just switched the thing off. Unfortunately, I fell right back asleep. An hour later I looked at the clock and realized I only had half an hour left to get ready. Bah!

So, prior to heading to the store I wanted to print out mini-route summaries for the people in my clinic. Even though I tell people to memorize the route, the little slips of paper with directions acts as a good reminder. Well, for whatever reason my printer just wasn’t taking any print requests. I spent precious minutes unplugging and plugging the thing back in. I eventually just gave up. Instead, I took a post it note and drew the route with a stubby Ikea pencil. Kind of ghetto, but I figured that it will get the job done.

In terms of food, I was planning on downing a bowl of Mini Wheats to get the carbs in, but I was running low on time. I ended up putting two pieces of whole wheat toast in the toaster to cook while I continued to run around getting things done. Luckily, I knew where my watches were. It’s too bad though that I spent a few minutes wondering where the hell my wallet was. Eventually I realized that I had already stuffed it into my jacket. Smart.

So, I filled up my water bottle with hot water, picked up my toast, and started heading to the garage a few minutes behind schedule. I locked up the door, and hit the elevator button. To my horror, the button wasn’t working. Instead of waiting around to see if the elevator would come, I just headed straight for the stairs and ran down like a mad man. As soon as I got to the garage, I realized that I had forgotten my gloves. For a moment I wasn’t sure what to do. The weather reports were telling me that it wouldn’t be as bad as the week before, but would I be able to tolerate a full run without coverage? In the end, I decided to go without because it would take way too much time to run all the way back up to my place and then run all the way back down. It’s a good thing too, because I had about 20 minutes to cover a 22 minute drive. Yeah, I have this whole thing timed to the minute–is that a bit crazy? I managed to eat my toast during each red light before ending up on the highway to go north of the city.

The run itself wasn’t so bad. Even with my hands in my sleeves in freezing temperatures, I managed to stay warm enough. Heck, anything would be an improvement over the week before. It’s interesting how last week’s run had tougher conditions but today’s run just felt harder. I reasoned that the without the harsh winter conditions to impede me I was able to work harder to go faster. Indeed, we shaved about half an hour off last week’s time (that’s how bad it was).

Anyway, I guess I’m just telling this story to indicate just how a rough morning isn’t enough to keep me down. In the end I just have to plow through within reason anyway, right?