Going Viral

This is the fourth day in a row I haven’t run. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m doing the right thing, that I’m not just being a baby – that in the long run (and this is all about the long run), letting this virus or flu or whatever run its course is better than trying to run through it.

But I’m getting a bit squirrely.

Some positive news: for the first time since Friday, every swallow doesn’t feel like I’m dragging shards of glass down the inside of my throat. I hate to be whiney about this, but four days of wincing with every swallow was wearing me out. Do you know how many times a day we swallow? Me neither – but let me tell ya, it’s a lot. Wait a second. I’ll Google it... Ta da! Answers.com says it’s around 2000 times. For me, that was 2000 shots of sharp pain a day. Now my throat just feels like sandpaper. I can deal with that. But I’m still taking the day off running.

One thing I’ve noticed, though, is that the whinier I am, the worse I feel. I mean, the raw physical discomfort of 2000 knives in my throat was bad enough on its own, but when I got frustrated – o woe is me, this is killing my fitness, my race (13 weeks away) is ruined, I’m sick of the pain, why me, blah blah blah – things felt worse. In other words, when I became out of joint with the way things were, when I started wishing the pain would just stop or wished it had never started, the discomfort became more difficult – as if being out of joint with reality was causing unnecessary friction. So I had to settle myself and accept the illness and just do what I could to make sure it would run its course as quickly as possible. Being sick is what it is – embrace it, roll with it, and get back onto the roads when it’s gone. Anything else will just make things worse.

That said, I’m sick of soup. I want real food again.

Actually, one of the soups J-A bought me was good old Campbells chicken noodle – the original stuff, not any of this post-health conscious sodium-reduced vegetables-added stuff. Just the straight up grisly bits of chicken and soggy noodles stuff. I was so excited. As a kid, I used to love slurping off the broth first and finishing with just the noodles. Anyway, I opened the can and there was this white-ish mass floating on top. Hmm. That can’t be good, I thought. Regardless, I dumped everything in the pot and stirred the lump away. When I served the stuff, I happened to let my bowl sit for awhile. When I finally grabbed my spoon out of the bowl, this yellowy scum – almost like saran wrap – lifted off the surface and clung to my spoon. What the hell? How did I like this so much as a kid?

I'm no health nut, but instinct tells me that soup scum can't be good.

Oh well. One more bit of fuel for the engine to burn. I can't wait to get back on the road...