If a Runner Goes to University...

... she might take more classes than she should because she's a marathoner and thinks that university must be easy by comparison. If she takes that many classes, she will probably stay up past her bedtime doing homework. While she is doing homework, she'll get bored and check Twitter. While on Twitter, she'll see updates from other runners and be so inspired that she'll set her alarm to run early the next morning. When she finally goes to bed, she'll look at the clock and realise that she can't possibly get up and run that early, so she'll decide to run in the afternoon instead. The next morning, she'll sleep through her alarm and race out the door too fast to grab her running gear (or homework). That afternoon, someone will invite her to do something fun and she'll go along because she is totally flattered that 20-year-olds think she is cool enough to hang out with. When she gets home, she'll see her neglected running gear but be too tired and have too much homework to go for a run. So she'll set her alarm for early the next morning. ... Eventually, she'll be too embarrassed to call herself a runner any longer and will just stop mentioning it on her blog and hope no one notices. 

Not that any of us know anyone who fits this description, right?

Who wouldn't want to run here?
Source.

So, after repeating this scenario ad nauseum for the past 20 months, I promised myself daily runs on Town Lake Trail during spring break. I love Town Lake: it's gorgeous, fairly level, and I don't have to stop for stoplights. So, it's a little running treat, and as a bonus, I normally have so much fun that I go farther and faster than I intended. It's fabulous. I didn't make it over the weekend, which bummed me out, but our friend and fellow runner Ruth was in town Monday for a few hours. I proposed a lunchtime run, followed by actual lunchtime, and got to introduce her to the trail. It was nice, it was relaxing, and since it was about 80 degrees outside, it was exhausting. This is why I get up at 5 AM to run in the summertime.

And then, yesterday: I meant to get up early and go run before our Airbnb guests departed. Unfortunately, I did everything to get ready except hit the "save" button on my phone's alarm, so I didn't wake up on time. However, I had an insanely productive day: Cleaned the house, filed our taxes, filled out my FAFSA... oh, and accepted my admission to Texas Tech for grad school. (Yes, I'm so sneaky with my news!) So by 4 PM, I declared that I had earned the trek downtown, during the crazy South by Southwest traffic, to run four miles. I will do it again today, even if I have to sneak out of BikeTexas for a couple of hours and brave the traffic again. 

What are you doing this week? Anything exciting? Rewarding? Just plain Jane?