For seven long, painful days I suffered from the flu from hell. For those who know the Rhodes campus, I suspect I may have caught it from the sifness that is the Jac labs- a computer lab on campus infamous for indoor heating permanently set at 48°c, keyboards that shine with sweat and germs, and lots of people coughing and sneezing on each other. For the first time this year I ventured into those labs and my body, incensed at the fact that I would so dare remove it from it natural habitat (aka the new media lab), decided to shut down completely.
Normal flu sends you to bed for a day or two, killer flu makes you want to curl up and cry about how unfair life is but doesn’t leave you with the energy to do even that. I suffered for three days like this, and then my ‘nurse’ arrived. As charming and kind as he is, James served more as amusement than as a nurse. His attempts to try and force me to eat when I had no appetite only made me grumpier, and so he resorted to eating everything himself. When my head hurt and my nose ran and my body ached, all I wanted to do was lie in bed and watch Project Runway. I was allowed to do this, but only with running commentary and criticism from the opening scene to the closing credits, when Boston Legal was promptly put on. He bought me chocolate to make myself feel better, but alas it magically turned into an empty wrapper.
Attack of the flu part two
Five days later I was super excited to be feeling human, and even more excited to be able to go for a run. I know, it’s unbelievable, never in my life have I been excited to run- I feel like I should be worried about these new found emotions! On went my new improved running kit, and out the door I ran like happy little child that grew up too quickly.
1km into my run/walk route I started to experience an all too familiar feeling; I have been known to faint at times, a tad randomly. I got as far as Kingswood College when the dizziness kicked in; I didn't really fancy passing out in front of a horde of school kids so I took a very gentle stroll back, urging myself to stay standing until I got to my house. This I managed to achieve, unfortunately my arrival home seemed to trigger a vomiting fit for about 30 minutes. Pathetic. I am such a bad runner that it makes me physically ill.
Fit vs. just plain fat
So I did a bit of research, and according to About.com, RunnersWorld.com, and Suite101.com the basic rule is no running when symptoms are below the neck (e.g. chest ache, bronchitis etc). So according to the experts my mainly above the neck symptoms are not necessarily a reason to stop training, and by yesterday I barely had any of these symptoms left, yet I fell apart.
Lesson learnt? My body is still sick, and it's having fun letting me think that I'm better. I was so scared that if I waited any longer I was going to fall out of the good routine I had going, and I was going to fail miserably as a runner. As frustrating as it is, I need to accept that no, I am not fit. I've only just begun training- the neck rule would probably be accurate for any regular, fit runner. That's not where I'm at right now, and that's okay. The biggest thing I could have learnt from this is that I need to focus on the long term challenge; I've given myself a year to get this right, and a bought of flu is not going to ruin the rest of the year.
Miss Jones and me
For those of you who read Fairlady, the Makeover Challenge contestants have recently finished their one year challenge, and it really put my challenge into perspective- long term training for long term fitness :) you don't train to be a runner for a year, you train to be a runner for life! And well, in all honesty, when the majority of your neighbours have seen you flash your bum and underwear, a touch of fainting and vomiting isn't all that bad. Just like I have, they will have to accept that I am the Bridget Jones of running.
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