Danger! Run, Will Robinson!

Yes, danger, indeed.

We've hung together for ten weeks. You've all gotten comfortable with running consistently, running hard, running long miles. It's becoming familiar... you're feeling confident, even if you worry a little about the next new distance on the calendar.

It's here that your worst enemy lurks. It's the whispered undertone just beneath invitations from friends and family. It lies in wait in the cushions of your couch, alluring and sticky, ready to clutch at you like a Venus flytrap. It sings beckoningly in the chorus of the holidays. It flits amidst the days and hours, compressing them here, loosening them there. It is abetted by the changing of the season, by days that are ever colder and grayer and fall more quickly to darkness.

It's one monster with many faces: Complacency; Apathy; Routineness.

I don't think any of you are thinking of actually quitting. But it can be easy to let your momentum and desire fritter away and fade. Because this running thing is no longer new and novel, because the first question of whether you could run distance at all has already been answered, because the $150 wallop to your checking account has dissolved into your economic past, and because I don't think I've done enough to kind of keep that fire going, because of all this, the pull of other events in your daily life, and even the pull of fatigue and listlessness, might seem stronger than your will to run, and clearer than the vision of your goal.

You miss a run, whether solo or with the group. Then another. You sleep through a long run. You might decide to recommit, but you come back and something real happens - sickness, an injury, a personal or work issue. Just like that, your goal is compromised, if not missed.

This is the point in training where people are in danger of losing focus and motivation. It's easy to do, certainly. But it's also one of the challenges you have signed up to face and conquer.

This training is more than a diversion. It's not a project you can set aside and not finish. It's not the exercise gadget gathering dust in the closet or under your bed. Whether you realize it or not, this training is a question you chose to ask yourself about who you are, who you want to be, and what you can do.

If you quit this now, are you happy with the answer? If you quit this now, what else will you quit?

Take some time to think about what you set out to do in September or whenever you decided to commit to running a half marathon or a marathon. Remember the work you've already put in. Consider the tremendous things you've already accomplished. Think about what you want your answer to be, and what this all could mean to you. Reengage and recommit yourself. Show up. Stay involved. Set two alarms. Get enough rest. Recover properly. Take care of yourself. Run.

Lisa hates that she hasn't physically been able to run. I'm sure Amber (strep throat), is, too. They'll both be back.

You've all come a really long way in the past ten weeks. Don't short yourself now. It's all a matter of choice. To paraphrase an advertising punch line - someone busier, and more tired than you, is out there running right now.