Lying to Run

Everyone lies. From the harmless "gee, your hair looks great" to the more severe "I don't know what happened to the copier, but let me call the repair guy".  Hopefully that is about the worst people I know do. I try not to do anything more serious than that myself. I mean, unless I am forgetting to tell the husband something.
Except when I run. Turns out, I can be downright deceitful with myself.
I promise if I can get to a certain point, I can go back. Then I get there, and since I made it that far, I pick another point--if I can only make up the hill, then  I can be done. And then again. Somehow I can lie myself right through the whole run. One would think I would stop falling for that.
I also lie about my pace. When I feel like I am going as fast as I can and I want to slow down, I promise myself when I really can't go that fast anymore, I can reduce my pace. Some days I am amazed how far I can go before I have to go slower. Some days it only takes the next hill.
I did a poll among my friends to see who else uses the carrot trick. I found some other tricks that work well too. A good one is to use a running buddy. One friend runs with her 12 year old, so she has to keep going--no one wants to admit to their child they can't keep up . "If she goes with me I can push myself".
This worked out great for both of them.  Her daughter is having a terrific cross country season this year. And my friend did the Beach Raid in September.
Another friend uses constant dialog in her head the whole time. She also uses an audio Couch to 5K program, which prompts her when to run and when to walk. She says it helps to have someone in her ear telling her what to do.
I know a lot of people use music to keep the run moving. In my life, music is background noise. I always have it on.  I love music, especially anything with a beat. But I have a tendency to get lost in my thoughts and I miss parts of the songs. That happens when I run as well. (Frequently I am thinking about my next blog) So while I do love to run with music it is not a driving force for me to run faster or longer. I think it just sheer determination some days that keeps me going. Other days, it is just the sheer joy of being outside, surrounded by nature and feeling of my muscles smoothly working together.
How do you get yourself going? More importantly, how do you keep yourself going while out there?