I hate being sick.

*Ahem* Cough* Cough*

I am sick.

The dreaded Mid-Marathon Training Illness. 

My throat is on FIRE. My head may explode.  My ears are so stuffy it seems they may burst.  My head is congested and I can’t breath…My throat burns! I think I could breath fire.  I might actually be a dragon!?

The Hubs brought back some sort of Ebola cold from Alaska and thought he got it from LB. I figured I would not get it. I could not have been more WRONG. Thursday I began to feel a bit scratchy in the throat. I decided to skip my 5 miler that day to try to ward off any bug that may be attacking me. That did not help.  Then in the middle of the night (or Friday morning) I realized I may have swallowed a porcupine. I had no voice…my head was pounding. So Friday I took drugs and vitamins and hoped I would fight off the super bug.  Friday night came and I had my voice back, my body was good, no aches. It was all above the shoulders.  I decided my plan to run with Mel Tall-Mom was still a go.  Yipee! 

Saturday morning I woke up and felt satisfactory (remember when you would get an S for satisfactory in elementary school?  Not O for outstanding but an S). I haven’t run with Mel in forever! I can’t remember our last running date! It was so great to run with Mel again! Here we are bright and early:

We set out for our 12 miles on the streets of T-Town.  Mel was only a little bit nervous about her safety on these streets. I am happy to say our run went off without a hitch. There were no near death experiences and the driver’s behaved themselves nicely.  The most exciting thing to happen actually took place about 12 seconds after Mel arrived at my house and got out of her car.  Some dude was rocking out walking down the side walk and he threw his fist in the air and yelled “Put your hands in the AIR…” or something along those lines.  It was awesome…The second thing to note was the little old lady packing heat in the park-that is IF you consider a CROW BAR heat!  Maybe “heat” is only a gun? That lady meant business and when Mel asked her “Who are you going to take down?”  she replied that it was “for her protection”. Well Duh!  I wouldn’t try to take her down, but I have to wonder if she could really use it. Like when I told Hubs I wanted to carry a knife for protection he flipped out and said “NO! That’s a good way to get killed.”  I have to say I agree.  So hopefully that little old lady would not be overpowered and beat with her own crow bar. Talk about a bad day.

As we neared the waterfront we saw some crazy lady waving her arms on the sidewalk in front of us. A few steps closer and Mel began waving like a crazy woman too!  Then I recognized Jill from Running to Sanity! It is so fun running into people I know. I can’t really explain the feeling but being a military family it is really really special to see people I know when I am out and about. It makes me feel like I am a part of a community.  We stopped for a few minutes and snapped a couple of pics:

Here is Mel, Me, Jill and Andrea (sorry about cutting off half your face Andrea!).

Jill, Mel and me

I asked Jill which hill I should take Mel up, The Spawn of Satan (steady incline for nearly a mile) or The Hill of Death (a no lie straight up hill that is about 3/4 of a mile).  Jill said she should see what The Spawn of Satan is like so that is what we did…Seriously, check out that elevation! Rough.

We finished our run with a spring in our step!

12.11 miles-1:54.48/ 9:28 pace.

It was a great run but where are my sub 9 miles?  Holy cow…depressing. I just don’t have it in me anymore.  I love running with Mel and hopefully we will have a chance for a few more runs before…before I move away.

After a couple of hours rest the Hubs and I got gussied up for our all-day date to Pain in the Grass, a huge rock concert featuring Drowning Pool, Seven Dust, Black Label Society, Godsmack, the two I really was pumped to see Puddle of Mudd and Shindown!!!  Here are a few pictures (there are more and better ones on AN the RB’s camera, but she is back to NYC today and I’ll get them from her later):

 

Riding the motorcycle to the concert…gets you in and out of ridiculous traffic with NO problems!

 

 

 

 

 

ME rocking out to Seven Dust!!  Woooo whooo!

 

 

 

AN the RB (don’t worry, she had VIP and back stage passes, she’s kind of a big deal….)

The Hubs and I were in the pit and she was in the seating section behind us. It was so funny to look back and see her standing up rocking out amongst all the stiffs just sitting there! She belonged in the pit with ME!

 

 

 

 

Yep, that would be me getting licked in the pit…that’s how we roll!

 

 

 

So Saturday was a long and tiresome day and now I’m recovering.  I don’t have time to be sick!  Next weekend is 18 miles!!!