The Morning Run

I heard Kel's alarm on her phone but I stayed in bed. Kel said something last night about having a shower and using the extra time to "wake-up". I didn't complain. The extra 15 minutes of sleep that I had, with my head on the warm pillow, was all the preparation I needed to start the day.
It was 2.45am when I got up. Kel had put the kettle on and had her shower. I got dressed into my thermal leggings, had a glass of water and checked over the bags. With breakfast packed neatly next to the warm thermos, and our backpacks full of extra clothes and food, we jumped into the White Rollerskate and rolled off down the road towards Fuji-san.
The bus schedule from Fuji train station told us that it would take about two hours to drive to the 5th Station at Fujinomiya. With no cars on the road at that time in the morning
and thinking that I could drive like Fangio, we reached the car park before the sunrise at 4.15am. I'm sure the deer on the side of the road had never seen a White Rollerskate going that fast up a mountain before. The car park was almost full even at this ungodly hour so I had to park a short distance back down the road. Under the interior car light Kel made our breakfast of Earl Grey and raisin buns. They were a bit dry but we managed. We dressed warmly and with backpacks on began our journey upward.
The 5th Station is a little unusual as it seems strangely to resemble a car park. There is a toilet and shops but not openat this hour. From reading the websites about the climb, I learned that there were about 7 stations that we could stop to buy drinks and stop at the toilets. We found the trail and began climbing. It was amazing to hear the crunching sound of pumice under our feet with no other sounds yet awakened. The sunrise was starting to pierce the light cloud cover which was warming knowing that the weather forecast had been for rain. Kel and I reached the 6th Station just as it was about to open.