A Runner’s Balancing Act

After a wonderful 6 mile run last Thursday morning, I posted on facebook that I am “hopelessly addicted to endorphins”.  It was THAT good of a run. It left me feeling on top of things all day long, my body pleasantly tired and my brain sharp.

Friday morning I had to get up really early to be at work by 6:30.  When that alarm clock went off at 5 am, I had an intuition that something in my body was off. Boy was I right.

By about 11 am that morning, I knew it without a doubt. I was getting sick.

I’m one of those people who very rarely gets sick. It’s so rare in fact that my husband made the comment that “I can’t remember you being sick since we’ve gotten married” (over 4 years ago). I have had my share of bugs over the years, but nothing so bad that I have to call in sick or lay in bed all day. Not the case this time. By 4 pm on Friday I had a sinus headache (only on the right side) so bad that I was seeing double at times. Even my jaw and teeth were aching. I could not breathe at all out of my right nostril at all and stupid Tylenol sinus was doing absolutely nothing for me. To make matters worse, I ended up working until 7 pm Friday night (yes that was a 12.5 hour day) frantically making changes to a project last minute. When I finally got in the car to drive home, I contemplated calling Joe to pick me up because I wasn’t sure if I was fit to drive!

Luckily I made it home safely and collapsed into bed. Not before telling Joe not to drink too much beer because he might be taking me to the emergency room in the middle of the night if this headache continued to worsen. I wanted serious painkillers, I wasn’t gonna mess around with Tylenol anymore!!  I closed my eyes and no joke I could see strange flashing lights.

Before I hit the pillow, I did manage to send a text to Sheila saying I wouldn’t be able to run 12 miles with her in the morning as planned. I was bummed to miss my long run, but I knew trying to run in this state was not an option.

Amazingly I did sleep that night. Joe had to work Saturday so I awoke to an empty house and the same headache from the night before, although a bit better. As I tried to do a few things around the house, the sinus headache quickly worsened and I ended up surrendering to the couch. It felt like my face and ear and forehead on the right side was on fire. To make matters worse I could not breathe out of my nose at all. It seemed like the only thing that brought some relief was to lay on my back or side with my head tipped slightly back.

I can’t remember the last Saturday morning that did not include a run. I felt sort of guilty for being such a bum and wasting a perfectly beautiful Saturday laying on the couch, but logically I knew there wasn’t much choice. I didn’t even have the energy to text my friend back, obviously I was in no shape to run. I watched two movies on cable and by noon I finally decided I needed do something. I needed to seek out some good drugs.

First I called my mom only to find out she was in central phoenix with my dad running some errands. She only lives about a mile away, so I was bummed she wasn’t closer. I had hoped she could drive me somewhere or at least come baby me a little bit! I was starting to wonder if I could get into a Urgent Care clinic. A few years ago I had had a similar headache and was prescribed some strong migraine medicine. I actually never took it because I was scared to while I was working and needed to be awake, but now I was thinking that was just what I needed!

Since I had no other option I finally decided I could make it to Walgreens down the street by myself. My mom had mentioned there was some kind of mini clinic there and I thought I’d check it out. I really expected to just talk to the pharmacist about trying something else beside Tylenol Sinus. It’s prime snowbird season here and I imagined there would be a line out the door for the clinic.

To my surprise there was absolutely no one in line and a smiling nurse practitioner was just standing there bored when I walked up! They took my insurance and within few minutes I was telling her my symptoms. Actually getting up and moving around had the surprising effect of making me feel a little better and so when she asked me the level of pain from 1-10 I said 6. I kinda wish I had said more, because I didn’t get the painkillers I had hoped for. I DID however walk out of there with a prescription for antibiotics for the sinus infection so all was not lost! She said it would make me feel better in 24 hours and until then I could take 1000 milligrams of Tylenol every 6 hours.

I toughed out the rest of the day on the couch and 24 hours later, she came through with her promise. My headache cleared (though my stuffy nose did not) and I was able to be somewhat functional most of Sunday. I even got made it to a superbowl party some of our friends were having.

I went to work today and despite low energy and a drippy, stuffy nose, I didn’t feel too bad. So when I got home tonight, I thought what the heck, let’s try an easy run. The sun was setting, I was in a meditative mood, so I set my iPod on a slow playlist and started trotting down the street at an easy pace.

At the end of the first mile, I knew I was definitely not the same runner I was last Thursday when I breezed through 6 miles at an 8:30 pace. Now holding a 9:30 was difficult. I managed 3 miles total tonight and I am pleased with it. I don’t think I could have done anymore.

I guess I’ll just have to see how I feel when it comes to runs this week. I’m supposed to be running a half marathon on Sunday with Sheila, but I am not signed up yet. I figure I will just have to wait until the last minute to see if I’m fit to run it. I’ll be bummed if I have to miss it. It’s the Lost Dutchman and its one of my favorites.

So I’m on the mend. Thank goodness for the Take Care Clinic at Walgreens and good antibiotics!

Happy running!!

If you haven’t noticed, I’m changing things up here at Balancing Act. Cleaning up the design, and hopefully the content as well. It’s Balancing Act 3.0! In the future, I’d like to make this blog a little more well-rounded. Product reviews, recipes, current events, discussions about physical and emotional health, body image, and spirituality (as they relate to running) are all topics I’d like to touch on more. Of course I’ll keep blogging about my own training and racing too, but I don’t want every post to revolve around ME! I’m tired of constantly recounting my miles and workouts.  Sometimes there just isn’t a whole lot to say about my training and I don’t like having to make excuses for myself. I’m not obsessing about training plans and miles per week right now and I have to remind myself that is a GOOD thing. I am thoroughly enjoying every run, and that is my highest priority when it comes to running. That is, after all, what Balancing Act is about… keeping my life in BALANCE.  I may be a little less of a runner these days, but a lot more of a WHOLE person… well on good days at least! That IS the goal.

So hopefully in the next few weeks you will start to notice the change around here. It’s about running related content for people who are so much more than just runners! Hang on for the ride!

PS – A post explaining the t-shirts is to come!