"It Had to Get Done."

We kicked off the first day of 2013 at the Rooney Trailhead at the base of Green Mountain.

Nothing like some gnarly hill-work to bring in the new year.

Start time:  6:30am--just before sunrise.

Outside temperature: 12 degrees--NOT including the wind.

I admit, we were serving up heaping portions of smack-talk and smug attitudes about our early morning dedication whilst adjusting our headlamps in the darkness.

But smack-talk and smugness is something the running gods rarely tolerate.

As we approached the trailhead to began our run up the icy trail, we noticed a frost-covered 4x4 in the parking lot.

An abandoned vehicle--left by a party goer from too many New Year's eve festivities we assumed.

We assumed wrong. 

For in the distance was an approaching runner...

On his way DOWN the trail...

FINISHING his run...

As we were just STARTING ours...

In the darkness.

On New Year's Day no less.

This guy redefined the word "dedication."

As the runner approached the trailhead to get climb in his frost-covered jeep, I shouted "good work man."

After removing a face mask, SHE responded; " It had to get done."

She closed the door, and drove off.

"It had to get done."

Perhaps it was the dark and the cold, but those four simple words screamed an impressive and indeed a humbling resolve that morning.

A resolve that ran deep.

Real deep.

A resolve that said no hill, no weather, no lousy boss, no lousy economy, not even a damned disease is going to discourage me from the work I need to do to get to the place I need to be.

I don't know where resolve like that comes from.

I wish it came in a bottle so I could splash it all over myself each morning like Aqua Velva.

For imagine possessing this type of resolve in our lives OFF the trails.

Our work.

Our home.

On any day...

Even when it's 12-degrees.

AMJ