Ah...Ah..ACHOO!

Welp, it's official. I've caught a cold.

The onset of everything was so weird, though. Sunday evening, I went out shopping, did my normal thing, came home and felt a small tickle/scratch in my throat. I thought to myself, "I"ll just start taking Zicam and some Vitamin C. That should do the trick." Afterall, I've got Christmas coming up where I have to see the fam, and it's pretty much a busy week in general. No time for colds!

Monday came, and I still had that scratch in my throat. I went to work as usual, but by the end of the day, I became a freakin' mouth-breather because I couldn't breathe through my nose! I was so stuffed up, my head hurt, and my body started aching. You want to know the first thing that popped into my head when I realized this was more than just a scratchy throat?

"WHAT ABOUT MY RUN TOMORROW!? 10 MILES!"

Yes, now that I've been training for this marathong, all I think about is running. It nearly stresses me out. My boss even told me that I obsess over it. Not in a good way either. It's like, all I can think about during the day is the run I have to get up for the next morning, which, let me tell you, is the ASS-CRACK OF DAWN. And once I finally finish that run, I feel somewhat accomplished for the day, but by 10am, I begin to think about the next run. It's like a freakin' DRUG. Except I don't actually enjoy running. But all I can think about when I'm not running, is when I get the next "fix" of running. I can't wait until this marathong is over.

Anyway, all I could think about Monday was how sick I felt and what I should do about my 10 mile run the next day (Tuesday, today). Should I run? Should I sleep? If I run, I could either sweat the germs out of my body and maybe it'll make me feel better, OR I could possibly make it worse. But skipping a 10 miler is kind of a big deal to me. I don't want to go through my entire Tuesday thinking that I could have maybe finished it. I'd probably just complain all day that I didn't run and I would feel like I'm truly not preparing for this marathong. And trust me, my co-workers are already tired of how much I talk about running. I could only imagine what their faces would look like if I complained about skipping this run.

After all that thinking, I made a decision: I was going to run. And I did. 10.03 miles today at 4:54am. Stupidly early, but I did it. And side note: I totally got lost. I was lost enough to have to pull my phone out of my pocket and GPS myself to find out where I was. I went about a mile out of the way of my route. OOPS.

So here I am, feeling just as sick as I felt on Monday, but I am 10 miles closer to finishing the marathong training. I almost think that if I skipped this run, I would have felt worse. Hopefully, I can get over this cold ASAP because I really can't afford to skip much training.

I remember my days back in college when I played lacrosse. During the sick season, there would be a few of us who would have to keep out of practice because we were sick. I think back on that now, and after enduring so much running and torture to my body from marathonging, I would NEVER have skipped practice knowing what I know now about feeling sick and wanting to stay active. It's sort of crazy what you're willing to put your body through when you want to achieve something athletic.

Anyway, I plan on taking tomorrow off. I am scheduled to run 3 miles, but I think I should just really kick this cold. And 3 miles is skippable. To me anyway. We'll see how long this cold lasts, but hopefully I'll be back and healthy as ever.

SO to anyone feeling sick right now: SUCK IT UP YOU FAT PANSIES. I JUST RAN 10 FREAKIN' MILES TODAY.