Pros and Cons

How can you tell it’s going to be a blazing-hot day?  Easy – step outside at 5 AM and you will feel the fire!  Which is exactly what happened as I jumped outside this morning, hoping to get my run in before the sun came out and really did some serious damage.  Needless to say, I was too late – even at 5 AM the air felt hot and the ground was getting ready for another boiling day.

The first 5 minutes felt like an hour, the next 10 felt as if I were being slowly roasted…  After about 30 minutes you realize that nothing really matters in life and as the sweat literally pours out of your skull, you begin to truly admire those courageous souls that somehow run through the desert or complete some insane marathons in the Death Valley…  I happen to think that those people are not really human and have no sweat and in reality require no water anyway, so no big deal.

On the other hand, summer time does have one advantage — it’s no longer that dark at 5 AM, as opposed to the winter months when 5 AM looks and feels more like midnight. And especially for someone like me – I am basically blind as a bat – running around like a madman in complete darkness is not such a good idea.  The funniest part of that experience is actually trying to guess the approaching shapes and objects, I see something dark on the sidewalk and have to decide whether that may be a bush, a little tree, a dog, a pony, a tiny car or something more aggressive about to jump at me.  It is a nervous experience to say the least, but I guess fun never stops for 5 AM Runners.

But in any event, 5 AM seems to be the way to go, especially during these scorching summer months.  One of my Twitter connections last night admitted that she is considering 5 AM or 11 PM as viable alternative choices for her cardio workouts, as going outside for a run during the day is simply life-threatening.  Of course, my suggestion was to forget about 11 PM, just wait a few more hours, go out at 5 AM or earlier, join our ranks and live happily thereafter!  I doubt she will follow my advice, but then again – no one really listens to me anyway, and it’s all good.  I mind my own business and simply

Keep it running!