The Connection Runners

Knock Me Down, But I'm Sticking Around

Whew! This training cycle has been rough! Run good, death in family. Run again, broken toe. Back to running, get horribly sick and end up in the ER. Yeesh. No one else sees that as a hint to stop running, right? Good, me either.

Thursday night Charles and I went to see the movie My Run.

My Run was the story of Terry Hitchcock. He lost his wife to breast cancer and raised his three kids alone. He wanted to bring awareness to the plight of single parents so he came up with a stunt to get media attention. He decided he would run from his home in Minnesota, to Atlanta. That was the same year Atlanta was hosting the Olympics and he wanted to be there for the opening ceremonies. In all he would run 75 marathons in 75 consecutive days. Well, he would run/walk/crawl/slide down hills on his butt. Whatever it took to make it through the miles. That would be a huge challenge for anyone, but for 57 year old man with health problems it was pretty much a miracle he made it. But he did make it, and he gained media exposure along the way. And even today, years later, his story is still inspiring other to reach for their goals and to be someones hero. I give the move two thumbs up. Definitely worth seeing.

Friday: Dash woke up crying at about 2am Friday morning. We settled him down, and had just drifted off to sleep when I heard the unmistakable sounds of him vomiting. All over Charles. Poor kiddo threw up every 20 minutes or so for the next 4 hours. By 7am I knew I had caught the bug too. Dash's vomiting was slowing down, but mine hit with a vengeance. Unfortunately, I had diarrhea as well. I couldn't keep anything down and by that evening I had lost 7 pounds. My head was throbbing, and I was having severe muscle spasms from the dehydration. My legs were curling up underneath me. Charles had to dress me and take me to the ER. By the time we made it to the hospital I had started with chest pains. Apparently those symptoms all stemmed from the severe dehydration.

I was given bags of IV fluids, meds for the nausea and electrolyte issue, and morphine for the pain. After about 5 hours in the ER I was feeling a bit better. I declined further fluids, longing for my own bed. As I was signing the discharge papers Dash threw up all over the hospital floor. The doctor checked him out, said he wasn't dehydrated, and gave a prescription for both of us. We are feeling much better, weak and tired, but no more tummy issues. Thank goodness.

Saturday I was supposed to run The Happy Runners Virtual Half Marathon as a training run for my upcoming half. Having spent the night in the ER,that obviously wasn't happening. I'm planning on getting out there today and plugging away at those miles. I have 11 days until my ZOOMA half marathon.

My goal for ZOOMA: have fun. And finish smiling.

Sure things may knock me down... but I'm sticking around. :)