I have to run 7 miles tonight.

I don’t want to. The higher my weekly mileage gets, the harder it gets to motivate myself to just go.

If I could leap out the front door and run, that would be one thing. But the obstacles I’m facing are enough to make me drag my eyeballs from their sockets with rusty spoons. Yes, I am talking about BOREDOM!!

You see, two active 4-year olds and a husband who is out of town mean that my mileage this week (and next week) will be primarily indoors. In my basement, which is not only humid but also dark. The humidity wreaks havoc on our fluorescent lights, and they won’t turn on. I am literally running in the dark, save for the glow of the television. That means I have to watch TV to see. That means I need something moderately entertaining to watch for the duration of my run.

BUT HAVE YOU WATCHED TELEVISION LATELY??

It’s like dumb procreated with dumber. I can barely stomach a thing. And unless it’s PVR’d, I have to endure commercials. So, other than an hour of True Blood and a PVR’d 2-hour (really, 1:30) episode of So You Think You Can Dance, I’m staring at a glowing box for at least 40 minutes, at least 3 times a week. I am literally counting down the miles by the second.

Kill. Me. Now.

It’s enough to drive me to drink. Or at least procrastinate, except that I can’t. I committed to this little thing called the BMO Okanagan Marathon in a few months. 10 weeks, really. And this weekend, I am scheduled to run EIGHTEEN FREAKING MILES. In a row. In one day.

That means I have to keep up with my shorter weekly runs, at the risk of dying of utter boredom. Life was so much easier when my training runs were 30 minutes long. Tonight, I’ll be running anywhere from 60-70 minutes. In the dark.

Someone help me pout it out! These first world problems really suck sometimes.