What Goes Around

I should have seen it coming. Last Tuesday my younger son’s school called me at work to inform me that he was sick. He was running a temperature of 101 degrees and needed to be picked up. I left the office early to get him and take him home. The school has a rule that prohibits the student’s return to school until 24 hours after the end of the fever, so I stayed home with him for the next two days. I had my Blackberry to check office emails, but it’s nearly impossible to do office work while caring for a sick child. My son was lethargic on Wednesday, but responded nicely on Thursday.

I woke up early Friday morning with a sore throat and a cough. Frankly, I was surprised that I didn’t get sick sooner. I was looking forward to taking my younger son back to school and catching up on work at the office; a cough is not going to keep me home. Then I heard the patter of my older son running down the hallway from his room to mine, followed by a retching sound and a splatter. He had just vomited all over my bedroom carpet.

Having stayed home the last two days, it was now my wife’s turn to do so. My son ended up throwing up several more times that day, but then it passed quickly. He was a little lethargic on Saturday, but then back to normal yesterday. I’m not sure what caused the illness.

The schedule called for 18 miles this weekend. The forecast called for several inches of rain on Sunday, so I considered moving the long run up a day earlier, to Saturday. That didn’t work out, so I was left with Sunday. I waited until the kids took a nap, then drove out to the C&O Canal (my wife was home with the children, of course). I ran from mile marker 23 above Riley’s Lock to mile marker 14 at Great Falls, then turned around and came back. My illness had drained me of my strength and I felt weak in my quads, calves and ankles. I felt slightly better after eating a gel at the halfway point, but not much. After 12 miles I wanted to quit, but I kept going. With three miles to go I even managed to pick up the pace by about 30 seconds per mile, but that may have been an effort to finish the run as quickly as possible. At least it didn’t rain.