The Early Bird Gets The Worm

It's 4:30am and my alarm goes off.  I lean over and hit snooze because my goodness my alarm is the most ANNOYING sounding noise there is.  10 minutes later...off it goes again.  Now I know I have to make a decision.  I either get up and accomplish the goal I set forth for the day or I enjoy my comfortable blankets, ocean sound noise machine, and cool breeze from the ceiling fan.  For all of you that know me...getting up at 4:40am is not an easy feat to accomplish with zero motivation from anyone other than my own personal guilt trip.  But there you have it...4:41am and both feet were on the floor and ready to go before I could convince myself otherwise!!

Two bottles of water, a quick homemade protein shake, trail running shoes and headphones and I was out the door and in my car for the 1hr drive south to Manitou Springs.  One of my goals this year was to do the Manitou Springs incline weekly to try and get down to a 30 minute climb to the top.  Well, when the remainder of the week is being spent traveling, my only option was to wake up early today and get it done.  

A quick stop at Starbucks for a much needed caffeine buzz and I was on my way.  In typical Heather fashion, nothing is ever easy and uneventful.  My goal was to be in Manitou Springs and halfway up the incline by 6:33am...today's official sunrise to catch a gorgeous picture and truly enjoy the peacefulness of being up early and amongst nature.  But no.  Three miles before the parking lot for the incline, there were blue lights in my rearview mirror.  Not only was I speeding (39mph in a 30mph zone), but coming from NYC I didn't have my registration ("Officer, in NY we have it on our windshield.  I'm sorry but I definitely don't have it in my car").   And if that wasn't bad enough, I also didn't have an insurance card.  As I offered to pull up my Geico account on my phone, he told me not to worry he could pull everything up with my license (which of course had an incorrect address).  One would think, with all of that on top of the speeding, I'd drive away with a pretty hefty ticket, but no, I received his business card instead and was told to have a good day!!  Thank you Officer for letting me off the hook this time!

Needless to say, by the time I reached the incline I was ready to go.  With my cardio hip hop pandora station playing, I conquered the 1 mile distance and over 2,000 feet in elevation gain all in 38:35 (1 minute and 15 seconds faster than my PR)!  Not too shabby for an early morning start.  The view at the top was nothing less than incredible and totally worth my heavy breathing and sore legs!

After a 2.5 mile trail run down to the base, I was back at my car and on my way home...all before 8am!!  Driving back home, I realized just how grateful I am to live where I do and have access to the things that I do.  Getting up at 4:30am is much easier when the rewards are as high as they are!  Be it a beautiful view, loss of pounds on the scale or simply the satisfaction of knowing that you accomplished something when others were still sleeping gives you such an endorphin high and motivation to keep moving throughout the day!!