Run Every Day: Hardest Day #1. The Moab Alley Laps

Late February 2019. I was in the middle of a PCS move, one of those all-day hauls with everything we owned jammed into two vehicles. My dog was riding shotgun in my truck, and my wife was driving behind. Thirteen hours on the road, pushing through to Moab for the night.

It started raining a few miles outside of town and didn’t stop. Cold. Relentless. Welcome to Utah.

We made it to the hotel, unloaded everything, and started settling in. That’s when I realized: no treadmill.

I was almost two months into the streak. Things had been going well. But after the day we’d had, thirteen hours in the cab, nonstop stress, rain soaking everything, running was not a priority. I was shot.

Instead of heading out, I drove to the store. Picked up some water for the room and a couple of beers to close out the night. I was fully prepared to call it. To let the streak die a quiet death. It had been a good run. No one would blame me. Hardly anyone even knew I was running every day.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling. That nagging question: Are you really gonna skip it?

Then my dog needed to go out. So I leashed him up and took him into the alley behind the hotel. Still raining. Still cold. Still dark. But standing there with my dog, I realized something important. I was already cold. Already wet. I wasn’t gonna get less soaked.

So I brought him back in, laced up, and went back out.

I ran laps. Tight, miserable laps in the alley behind a hotel I’d never stayed at before, in a town I’d never visited, under a sky that couldn’t care less. Just me, the pavement, and the rain.

1.1 miles. Just enough to count.

That run didn’t happen because I had momentum. It happened because I had none, and made the decision anyway.

And that decision built the momentum. That run set the tone for everything that followed. Because once you prove to yourself you can do it when it sucks, there’s no excuse left for skipping when it doesn’t.

If you're on the fence, if the day was too long, the weather too awful, or your energy too low, remember the alley. You don’t need the perfect setup. You just need to go.

Class 5 Performance is built for that mindset. Rain or shine. Road or alley.