running in the cold

Its difficult to even place my hand on the icy golden doorknob. Much less turn it to the right  or push the door open.

"its too early" "Ben needs to be napping"  "Ben needs to be fed" "has Ben gotton enough playtime?" "do I have enough time to do this?"

I peek over at our electronic weather center sitting atop the pub table to check the oudoor running conditions. "whats the temperature?" "will it get ANY warmer?" "whats the wind speed and directon?" Then I look out the window to our treeline at the edge of our property to see if the trees are moving too much.

I  rumage around our house, traversing our stairs a few times, to see if I have all of my gear.
phone? check
headphones? check
neckwarmer? check
gloves? check
head band/ear covers? (I have very sensative ears you know...) check
the right pants? extra layers?

With all of my questions answers and all of the stars alighned, then, only then, do I even reach for the door.

I step tentively out onto the stoop. I feel the slightest of breeze and cold tingle on the tip of my nose. And consider turning around.

 "Do I really want to do this?" "Its  sooo cold!" " I have an elliptical and bike in the comparaively much warmer basement." There is no biting wind in my basement.

Somewhere in the middle of my time-wasting negative self-talk, a message appears on my Iphone. According to Facebook, my sister just fininshed her 6 mile training run 5 minutes ago and 3 and a half hours south.

Thats all the motivation I need. That last push over the edge. I have to be able to keep up with her- step for step. Its a sister thing.

I promptly flick my thumb over the screen to the "music" app and hit play. The scroll over to Runkeeper and select "Begin Workout".

Face to the wind and with a 15 second delay, I'm out. Running. Cold. Healthy. Moving.

 Out of excuses.