I don't remember if it's from the 80's movie Boyz in the Hood, the rap group NWA or some other old school source, but I could swear I remember seeing or hearing a mock commercial that was hyping the Army which said "we do more before 6am than most nigg*s do in their entire lifetime." I also remember hearing that people from the music community that I grew up in would replace the urban slang word nigg*a with vegan. Though it's a round about method of getting there, I felt like that today I was going to do more before 6 in the morning than most vegans do in their entire lifetime.

Today I'm taking a trip. I have to leave my house by about 9:30 am. I also had to run 18 miles in order to free myself from a long running commitment this weekend. Though I've run in many of the greatest cities in the world, I didn't want to burden myself or the people I'm staying with to ensure I'd have a good run. In fact, I figured I could have much better control of all the things necessary to have a good, long run.

Boy was I mistaken. I'm having a few issues in life, some really major ones, that are causing me anxiousness. After going to sleep around 11:15 last night I awoke at 2am. I've never been a person who has trouble falling asleep. Instead, my insomnia comes on the backside. When something's on my mind, there's little to no chance of me sleeping in. However, today was an extreme example. Not sleeping in can at times mean waking up between 5 and 6am. Unless I'm suffering from severe jet lag, 2am is unheard of.

My alarm was set for 5:30am. I wanted to get out of the house by 5:45am and hopefully be back by 8:15am. That would give me plenty of time to go about my morning routine, get a bit of work done and pack for St. Louis. As I lay in bed, completely wired, I began to worry that I wouldn't fall asleep again. So, at 3:15, after an hour of my brain causing me grief, I decided that I should just do the run then.

I sprung from bed, checked the weather.com report (56 with a light rain), put on a running shirt and a longsleeve shirt, grabbed my cotton gardening gloves (which I typically use between 45 and 55 degrees) donned my shoes and iPod Nano and took off out the door.

Georgetown is an empty place at 4am. There's a clock on a building on the eastern end of Georgetown. As I passed it, already a bit wet from the much heavier than light rain weather.com had given me, I was in awe at the reading the black hands expressed in front of the big orange glow. It was 4am, and I was the only person in Georgetown. It's about 3 miles from my house to Georgetown. I ran the length of it on M Street, trying to imagine how busy it would be later in the day, and especially on the weekend. From there I crossed the Key Bridge (eclipsing Mile 4 and feeling the water soak through my gloves) and got on the Mt. Vernon trail.

I'm familiar with the Mt. Vernon trail from the Memorial Bridge and to the south. I was about a mile and half north of where I usually get on. I made one wrong turn (almost crossed the Theodore Roosevelt Bridget back into DC) in the pitch black, but quickly corrected myself. By Mile 5 my shirts were soaked and heavy and I was beginning to wonder if the early departure was such a good idea.

I brought two gels with me, each with caffeine in them. Though I've never been a huge fan of eating anything while running, I do believe that the gels help provide energy. On these long runs I usually take one at the half way point. Today I decided I would take one at the 6 mile mark and again at the 12 mile mark. As I sucked down the espresso flavor CLIF GU at mile 6 I wondered why I wasn't just using that as my halfway point and going home.

I always read about if you're having a bad run that you should call it off and try again the next day (or week). I've never been a fan of that philosophy. These long runs to me are truly mind over matter. They are training runs and you train for a reason. Barring some horrible injury, I don't ever plan to call off the race I'm doing and try it again at some other time. Maybe those who espouse such philosophies run more races and more often than I do. I do one marathon per year at best - I need to make it count!

The Mount Vernon trail was dark and the pounding rain was creating a lot of puddles. Though there aren't many cars out at 4:30 am, it only takes one or two coming towards you to cause interim blindness. That, of course, allows you to firmly plant one foot into an ankle high puddle - cold feet!

I made it to 9 miles without too much trouble. Getting back was a different story. The rain was being driven by a powerful wind which was now going to be my headwind. I seemed to have picked up the intensity of my run on the back half, but that headwind was causing me a lot of troubles.

I'd hoped to be able to share the shuffled songs that came on my iPod while I ran, and what each one of them made me think about. However, when I stopped my workout on the device it cleared the tunes. I definitely have ton on my mind, and it made it hard to concentrate on running at times. That made me hit quite a few major puddles on the run home.

I basically retraced my steps back, but crossed the Memorial Bridge and ran along the DC side of the river instead of staying in Virginia and heading back across Key Bridge. WIth 4 miles left I began to get pretty tired. My legs have had a rough week. However, I was mentally able to continue to push myself. As eluded to before, this is why I train. Those that haven't set their mind on a goal and have something to work towards have trouble relating to things like this. But there was no way my mind was going to let my body stop (and any second spent walking would actually just be another one OUT IN THE COLD RAIN).

With 2 miles left I had to run up the hill heading out of Rock Creek Park to Calvert Street. My legs really weren't happy with that decision. My thighs were starting to really feel it and the range of motion in the hip socket and hip flexors had drastically decreased. Nevertheless, I pushed on, worn, tired and very cold. Crossing the bridge on Calvert Street leading to Adams Morgan I got a huge gust of wind and rain thrown at me. I felt like i could have easily used plenty of reasons to not do this run, and at that point I felt as if someone was really trying to stop me.

All in all it was an 18.11 mile run in 2 hours 22 minutes and 11 seconds. My overall pace was 7:52 and I burned 2247 calories. That means at least ONE good thing - I get to eat a LOT today! I'm hoping to get some good rest and recover this weekend, though I may try to throw a run in on Sunday some time. That said, I only have one more really long run before the race - 20 miles two weeks from now!