Tales from the Perimeter: Bailed...and Ultrarunning

Perimeter meaning the 6 mile patrol road inside the fence of the military installation on which I work, where some half a dozen of us comprise a pool of running “talent” and strive to show up for a noontime run a couple times a week if we can escape our desks. We share a lot and these guys are one of the core pillars of my sanity. 

Right before Christmas I did the normal noontime perimeter run with my running buddies, then told them about my plans to do a double that day and run a short section of the Appalachian Trail on my way home.  I rarely do doubles, but I had a couple hours of vacation time I still had to use or lose, so that was the plan.

However, as we all know, the best laid plans....so here's the confessional email I sent to the guys afterwards:

Gents,

Without sounding too much like Brandon Hantz [from the most recent season of Survivor], I wanted to be up front with you and tell you I wussed out of the trail run.

When I got to my turn off Rt 11 and had to commit, it was raining HARD and I just thought, "I really don't feel like doing this."  Plus I was thinking about a number of other stops I needed to do today.  So I didn't run.

Please vote for me for the $1M anyway, so I can turn around and give it to somebody.

Sometimes the right running plan is NOT to run.