I have concluded, after the last 24 hours, that I’m sick. Not in a major, show-stopping, don’t-shake-my-hand kind of way, but I’m sick. It’s probably the beginning of the bi-annual sick that I get around this time every fall and spring when the seasons go through their major changes and my body decides it doesn’t want to keep up anymore. This time it gets to happen right before I run a 5K. I’d feel bad for myself, but my friend who’s running a half marathon tomorrow also feels sick, and she’s running 4x the distance I am tomorrow, so I’m going to stop feeling sorry for myself until we’re both across the finish line.
I’ve never really enjoyed being sick. I suspect most people haven’t. But before, when a case of head congestion and an inflated sense of public service allowed me to take a sick day (ah, college…), I now find myself lacking that kind of flexibility. I’m a busy guy. I have things to do. I have things I’d rather be doing, and if I’m going to spend the day lounging about, I’d rather do so by choice than by necessity. This weekend I had planned a 5K, a party to celebrate the end of Oberon season, and a trip out to the Grand Rapids area for some delicious homebrew with some good friends. This is a lousy weekend to get sick.
Being the kind of person who prefers a more efficient solution to a given problem (read: shortcut), I decided to try something different this time. Typically, I’d take some Sudafed and suck it up. Sudafed doesn’t work too well, though, and if it is working well I wind up feeling high as a kite and can’t sleep to save my life. These things make doing what I need to do (like running a 5K) rather difficult. Last fall when I got sick right before a major company event, I combined Sudafed with a friend’s Elderberry syrup, and it managed to cut my sick time down to about 2 days instead of the usual 4-5. Elderberry syrup isn’t readily available this time, though, so I followed another friend’s suggestion and picked up some Airborne this morning. I realize the stuff is basically a few cups of tea mixed with a megadose of Vitamin C, but if it keeps me from taking something that’s a) expensive, b) dries me out and makes my contacts unbearable, and c) cuts down the amount of time I spend sick, then I’m all for it.
So we’ll see how it goes. If this cold follows all the others before it, tomorrow is going to suck. It will be a terrible day to run a 5K. The party has already been scrubbed, because nobody wants to eat killer garlic shrimp made by a walking germ. My hope is that this whole Airborne thing works, and I’ll feel well enough for maple syrup mead on Sunday along with more delicious food than you can shake a stick at. Here’s hoping.
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