Not a runner? You can run 8 miles if you pay for it.

Last Saturday I ran more than eight miles.

Oh and I haven't even gone for a light jog in the past six weeks. Too sick, too busy, too cold, too hot, too busy, too sick. You name it.

And as I walked to the start line, adding up the excuses in my head, all I could say to my running buddies is: "I am SO not prepared for this."
Squished between about 7,000 people, the start gun sounded at 10:30 p.m. If the distance wasn't enough to throw me off, the timing was. Yes, I was doing a $75 midnight run to the Tower of Terror at Disney World in Orlando, Fla. First, off, I don't even like the Tower of Terror, a ride that consists of free falling in a "fright elevator."

But apart from my rusty legs getting cramped up in the last two miles, I found the Fall night air to be refreshing and Disney's over-the-top scenery to be a nice distraction from the beat of my gasping breaths. Plus, that race slapped me awake and threw me out of my running slump. I started working runs into my busy schedule again this week. Seems scheduling a race can pump some motivation into you, agrees Runner's World, which offers other Fall tips to get back on top of your training.

Still, my post-race runner's high wasn't enough to get me on this: