Black Friday – Run or Drive….?

Another early-morning wake up, although the one today had entirely different goals and implications – shopping like we do only once a year!  You gotta get there early enough, to have a chance against those brave bargain shoppers, who brave rain, snow or any kind of frigid cold weather, who show up in the wee hours, or better yet, forget sleeping altogether this night!

So what’s a 5 AM Runner to do?!  Obviously no time for my usual, insanity-ridden run through the night streets of Langhorne, surrounded by complete darkness, blinking traffic lights, dog-walkers (who, of course, hate me) and early morning drivers, whose hate for me actually surpasses that of the dog-walkers.  Instead, I find myself running after my wife, who suddenly decides that my presence there is optional, grabs the boys and takes off without warning, gunning her CRV to the floor.  I don’t stand a chance…

Quick decision – I get into my Civic and floor it to catch up to them, and I actually do.  After all goes well, we buy everything we possibly can at Target, kids are happy, wife is pacified, the day is back on track, and we proceed further to Walmart and GameStop, leaving my Civic behind in the crowded Target parking lot.

Don’t feel like boring you with details – I already may have – so cutting directly to the chase, I choose to run to get my car back from the Target parking lot, which is about 4-5 miles away from our house.  My wife has a laugh, commenting: “Don’t forget the keys!”  There are slight traces of rain coming down, not much, as I set out on my unusually-late running session. 

Right away, I notice one major difference – cars on the road, way too many of them!  But even forgetting that for a moment, wow, what a difference overall, just feels much heavier, much harder at this hour, like running with resistance-weight on my ankles!  Definitely not doing that again!

I always believed it only made sense during the summer, when running at 5 AM or so was the only way to beat the heat.  Well, seems like even aside from the heat issue, the body just functions differently at 5 AM.

Read on…