The promises we make to ourselves

Cloud inversions, broken sunglasses and why getting out of bed is usually a good idea

On Sunday morning, my alarm went off at 5:30am and there was not a single part of me that wanted to get out of bed. It wasn’t even a particularly comfortable bed: I was on the top bunk in a YHA dorm in the Yorkshire Dales.

I was there for the weekend with my dad, who was still asleep on a bottom bunk across the room. Dave is currently four months out from a big operation on his arthritic hip, so running is out of the question for him. I really needed to get some miles in, with only a month to go until my 100km race, and the only answer was to do it early doors before spending the afternoon with Dad. I was planning to head up Ingleborough, one of the Yorkshire Dale’s famous three peaks - but there was sleep to have and coffee to drink and faffing to do.

Why is it that however many alarm clocks go off, however many times you do drag yourself reluctantly out of bed and however many times, after a few minutes, you feel absolutely fine and are glad you got up, it’s so hard to remember that …