Some Run For... FUN?

Here are some

who like to run. 

They run for fun 

in the hot, hot sun.

I think I should have contests and give out special prizes. If I did I would have a "name that book" contest and give a really awesome and meaningful prize to the first one to tell me where this verse came from. 

(And by "awesome and meaningful" I mean "delicious and fattening".)

It's race week at our house and this little verse has been pounding through my head.

Partly because I woke up to this:

Call me whiny, but it hardly seems fair that some really do get to run for fun in the hot, hot sun 

while I still have to endure this...at the end of March.

But that's not all. I'm having another issue here. See that word, "fun"? That's my problem. I usually love to run and really do run for fun. But lately I feel like I have been training for a long time, and am here to boldly admit that I am a little tired of it. Especially since I got back from SoCal.

I just feel fresh outta fun.

I'd like to think that it has mostly to do with the weather. Too many days of no hot, hot sun. In fact, months on end of no sun at all.

Maybe even years.

But it just might be more than that. For all you runners out there (and if you can walk to the fridge and back that counts), here is a small list of my immediate running grievances.

1. No sun. Really. This is a super big one for me. The lack of sunshine leaves me lethargic and stubbornly interferes with my motivation.

2. No sun + cold. I do not enjoy running in the cold. It leaves my muscles stiff and tired. It's hard to get out the door and I come home chilled.

3. No sun + cold + sun & warmth for a day + no sun + cold again. Honestly, I did okay with the cold and gray running for awhile. But after one unseasonably warm day in February there was no going back. And I've hardly been able to get my foot out the door since. As for the treadmill? Well, I've pushed myself to do it, but I haven't liked it. At all.

4. My last long training run was hard...and slow...and miserable. And discouraging.

So, now what? On Saturday I have a half marathon that I don't want to run. I have even trained for a goal time, and it's the best course I'll race this year to reach that goal.

But I have No. Desire. To. Run.
None.
Nada.
Zip.
This is entirely new territory for me!

Clearly, I am in a rut. A big, fat, sloppy, cold rut.

And now I am not only looking for, but actually soliciting advice. I can hear The Man gasp about this from 20 miles away.

So, even if you don't run I know there are different things in your life that you do for fun. But sometimes you still get in a rut about them, right? (Please say I'm right.)

So the question is this:
How do you get yourself back to that fun thing being fun again, especially when you need it to be the most?

Please, share this around as much as you can. Because I need HELP!

And I only have 4 days, 10 hours, 15 minutes, and 32 seconds to figure it out...