The First Step

The first step is the hardest, right, but what if there is another way of looking at it? The first step is a huge achievement - a triumph, if you will, over inertia, over doubt, over laziness.
It's ticking off the first little thing on your to-do list: this morning it was to charge my Kindle.
It's taking the literal first step out the door for a run.
It's having the healthy option, passing on the pudding - the first step towards losing the next lb.

So I went for a run: the first step along today's road of self-improvement.

And the first step is the action, which we all know, leads to motivation.

Today's run: on one hand it was terrible - on the other, it was a triumph.
It's been snowy and what's left is icy patches, quite lethal in places but there's space to jog along the road or the sunny side of the street. It meant running very slowly and carefully. Also, I am so overweight again I was struggling: at the 1/2 way mark I have to slow down - but there's nothing wrong with that. I have to fight the compulsion to compare myself with other people (positively as well as negatively - we are all separate beings, there is no fair comparison)
On the triumphant side; I went for a run; I slowed down in order to keep going and I felt a lot better at that point (it was the first step along the path of finishing a run); the weather is glorious and sunshine is a powerful boost to my mood. Ok, my eyes and nose were running which was a bit annoying but it was very minor.

4.68 miles (far far further than I thought I ran - another triumph, thank you)
10m 45s pace - the slowest for a long, long time - a combination of carrying too much weight and tiptoeing around the ice sheets...