It's 9AM

Is it too early to make New Year's Plans?

The power of ten

When I was very deep in ultra running in Florida

I could show up at a weekend fat ass run and get greeted with hugs

One New Year’s Eve, I saw a post for a “Run in the New Year” party

A running group that hosted a couple of ½ marathons and 5k’s I had participated in was having a run club party

And it is exactly like it sounds

Show up at 10:00

Everybody runs at 10:30

Go up the road as far as you can and then turn around and come back

Be back at the club house at midnight or whatever

And BYOB to ring in the New Year

I met three people who I ran beside

Or re-met them

A guy a couple of year’s older than me who had run multiple hundred’s and we’d been introduced in passing at a race

We shared a name and a passion for running

So I kept pace with him and his date

While we ran beside the busy roadside

And rang in the New Year together as a trio

Just talking, half breathless, all sweaty

When we got back at the clubhouse, he handed me a beer without asking and we clinked the cans

I talked with a woman who I met in a swamp

Until her boyfriend came up and whisked her away

He was a “real” runner, winner of multiple ultra’s, did four or five multi-day adventure races every year

And there were back of the pack folks, almost just like me

Who were starting their running journey

Or were very experienced at running 1/2’s and running Full’s and 5ks and the running club was their big hobby

A lawyer who worked 80 hours a week

More than a few doctors, ob-gyn’s and cardiologists and a general practitioner

A few more plumbers and roofers and a funeral home owner

And me

All walks of life, all together on a New Year’s Eve and all talking about our big plans for the year

Mine were set

In two weeks from that night, I’d jump out of an airplane and be one of the first very few folks who landed and ran a one hundred mile race

A skydive ultra

And in March I’d run another 50 mile race

And in April, I had a 100 mile race scheduled

Then in May, the biggie. My biggie.

The Key West 100.

With more plans after that.

Except I didn’t talk about my plans on that night.

I asked about theirs.

But people knew what I was doing.

Planning to do.

They studied ultra sign up and remembered other discussions and talked to other people

Then knew I was headed into a year of hurt

A year of testing who I was and what I could do

A year of getting after it and learning

A year of being broken and rebuilding after an accident that changed how I ran

But that night, I was just a guy hanging out with some other folks

doing something fun and weird and off the cuff

Kinda hoping these new aquantances wouldn’t be forgotten

Today is a great day to show your support.

IT’S 9AM

Every morning is a second chance.
Most people miss it.
Chris Lowry writes it down.

It’s 9AM is a raw, unfiltered, quietly powerful collection of personal essays from the writer of the hit daily Substack by the same name — stories about life, resilience, failure, grit, and the impossible business of becoming a better human without burning your entire life to the ground in the process.

If you’ve ever woken up wondering how to keep going…
If you’ve ever tried to reinvent yourself at the “wrong” age…
If you’ve ever fought your own doubts while chasing something bigger…
If you’ve ever felt like life is one long run where the finish line keeps moving…

This is your book.

Lowry doesn’t hand out “10 Steps to Fix Your Life.”
He hands you something better: his lived-in truth.
The early mornings.
The setbacks.
The running trails.
The mistakes.
The tiny wins that matter more than we admit.
The lessons that arrive disguised as chaos.
And the moments where the world makes sense for just long enough to write them down.

These essays are sharp, funny, vulnerable, and brutally honest — a reminder that personal development isn’t a mountaintop. It’s a daily lap. A daily choice. A daily reset.

It’s a journey. And it starts every single morning at 9AM.

Whether you’re here for the storytelling, the soul-searching, or just a reason to keep swinging one more day, It’s 9AM gives you what you need most:

A spark. A breath.
A nudge forward.
A reminder you’re not alone.