Sunday morning I woke up around 6:30 AM. While laying in bed, I stretched out a little, trying to decide if I was awake enough to get up and go run. It didn’t take long to decide, I knew I wanted to get out and run.

I got dressed and laced up my brand new Brooks Adrenaline 9s. I put on the Road ID, the Garmin and my iPod and stepped out my front door, pleasantly surprised as it was already slightly warm but not too warm. I knew the run wouldn’t be uncomfortable in regard to temperature.

In addition to new shoes, I also decided I didn’t want to run with my knee straps on. When I first started running, my legs were a lot less strong than they are now. I’ve built up the strength and I don’t really want to run with the straps anymore if I can avoid them. If running with the straps is necessary to keep going, then I will do that… but I’ll never know unless I give it a try. Lately I’ve felt the knee straps are actually messing with my gait as opposed to helping me.

After my warm-up walk to the entrance to my neighborhood, I saw that traffic was pretty light so I could actually cross the road and do my figure 8 loop. When traffic is really bad, I prefer to just do an out and back route, just because I get tired of standing on the side of the road waiting for a break between cars.

I started to run and the old legs… they just clicked. They fell into a motion that felt right. Nothing about the run felt overly strenuous, nor did it feel too easy. I just enjoyed the morning while listening to an awesome album (Oracular Spectacular). My knees felt strong the entire time, better than they’ve felt in the straps for a while. It was one of those days when you wrap up the run and are eager for your next one just because you felt so alive.

Am I telling you to be motivated by me?

No.

What I’m saying is that some days the run is one of the best feelings in the world, you don’t always know when it will happen. If you don’t get out there, that feeling will never happen. But when it comes, that feeling is motivation enough to keep you going for a while.

So I urge you to keep running, you never know when you’ll get that A-HA! run.

For me, it couldn’t have come at a better time. I needed this.