You choose.

I've been (almost obsessively) listening to the Adele Live at Royal Albert Hall Album since December 25, 2011.  It was a random last-minute Christmas gift, purchased on the way from the office to the gym, in an actual store that specializes in selling actual CDs and DVDs.  My dad loved the gift and I've memorized every single word I later saved to my iPod.  

There is now a point on every (treadmill) workout when her cover of "To Make you Feel my Love" hits my ear buds and the desperation in those lyrics combines with the hour of the day (usually before 6AM) and it becomes a love song not about love at all; rather, the scrapes and the craziness, bruises and blows (to the body, soul and ego) and the gut wrenching realization that something has you where it wants you and you would do anything at any time to make it so, stands up and reminds you that this is in fact the case:

I'd go hungry

I'd go black and blue

I'd go crawling

Down the avenue

Know there's nothing

That I wouldn't do

To make you feel my love

And when those long notes push me into 7 minute miles to complete my workout just shy of 6:30AM, looking down a long day and another workout at 6:00PM, I know with more certainty than anything else, that I made the right choice - for the day, the week, the month and the year, for always - and it will continue to make the difference, in running, life, love and my ever after to Boston in 2013.    

It is in this moment that the small choices need to make the difference.  It's at 5:00AM when just turning on the right combination of lights matters.  It's at 4:30AM when the blender blending your green monster the first time you add the last of the ingredients matters.  It's on a January morning just before snow that finding your favorite glitten on your first try in the dark matters.  It's the feeling of new socks and the way your hat dries quickly on the heater at the gym that make these mornings effortless.  And so, here is to every small choice that got me to where I am today and made me realize I am a Runner.

Source: goaheadandsmilealready.tumblr.com via Michelle on Pinterest