It’s never easy setting your alarm to get up before the sun rises to squeeze in a run, but it is always worth it. That being said, here are the 10 stages of grief getting up for an early morning run.

1. The night before: You set your alarm. For 5 a.m. That’s 5 freaking a.m. You’re sure you want to do this, right?

2. Bedtime! You toss and turn and toss and turn because you’re anticipating the early wake-up call.

3. Finally, the alarm goes off. It’s still dark outside, and the covers feel so nice. And you’re tired.

4. You contemplate hitting the snooze button. Running three miles instead of five, is fine, right?

5. You decide to leap out of bed. That is, if leaping is crawling slowly from under your covers that you have zero inclination to actually leave.

6. You groggily walk around your house. So this is what “The Walking Dead” feel like.

7. Thankfully you laid out your clothes the night before. Because finding them now would be way too much effort. Now to just put them on …

8. You find your kitchen. Time for a tiny bit of coffee and some fuel.

9. Shoes laced, ready to go. You’re finally pumped for the run. Or at least realize you’ve gotten this far into getting ready and there’s no going back to bed now.

10. You head out the door and realize morning runs aren’t so bad. In fact, they’re kind of awesome.

For more from Katharine Lackey, visit Kat Runs D.C.

Featured image credit: iStock Photo, Copyright: serpeblu

By Nichols