Struck Down

I made it to Boston. In the face of record breaking snow storms that threatened to ground all flights in or out of the East Coast, I made it. The snow-storm decided last second to skip the Boston, New York area and dump mostly on the nations capital of Washington. Good for me, bad for the people of Washington.

However, upon arrival in Boston, not long after I checked into my hotel, I had a surprise gift waiting for me in my room. The gift? The flu. Yep, we're talking full on body ache, head ache, sore throat and temperatures ranging from hot and sweaty, get these covers off me, to cold and shivery and please page reception for some extra blankets. It was a disaster. Luckily I didn't race until late Saturday evening, so I stayed in bed all day. Drinking fluids and popping flu pills. I got up a couple of hours before the race, convinced I wouldn't be able to run. But I decided to take it one step at a time starting with the first step of actually getting out of bed and seeing how things go from there.

Once I started my warm-up I'd made the decision that I would be pacing this race. So now all I had to do was stop thinking like a sick person for the next hour so I could get the job done. And I did get it done. I ran well, hit the targets set for each point of the race, stepped aside when it was time and let the rest of the field battle it out to the finish. 20 minutes after the race, I was a struggling patient again. 1 hour after the race, I'm grumpy, needy and begging to be brought back to the hotel so I can lay down. I'm a childish mess and all I want is my bed and someone to take care of me. Luckily I got both, Husband saw to that. One thing I will say about my illness, it has given me quite a deep and husky voice, compliments of a sore throat and cough and I swear my singing skills have improved to the level of Toni Braxton or Bonnie Tyler as a result. Were I to audition for American Idol right now, I feel confident Simon Cowell would be handing me a ticket to head straight for Hollywood, my voice is that good. I just need to get these minute long coughing fits under control and we should be in business. Coughing fits are not sexy I hear.

In the mean time, here is a photo of pace-maker extrodinare, me. Taken this very weekend in Boston. Thanks Photo Run for forwarding this.