Not the B Word-Yes, Dear, Bronchitis

My blog has a think layer of dust on it-similar to my table due to my lack of time to do anything but train for a marathon. I went MIA for 3 weeks mainly because I got sick. I completed my last (and farthest) long run of 20 miles and literally stepped off the treadmill sneezing. That was the beginning. I was able to keep up with my training the next week, but struggled through my runs. Then the bronchitis set in. Week 2 of being sick, I went to the doctor begging for a cure. She gave me antibiotics, but they did nothing. I spent the week resting lots and trying to take it easy. I did the bare minimum for my running, but when it came to my 10 mile run, it just wasn’t going to happen. A week before the marathon and I’m unable to run 10 miles? Not a good sign.
I went back to the doctor 6 days before the marathon in tears, hoping he could give me a miracle drug. He agreed to give me a different antibiotic, although he was convinced it was viral in nature. I asked the BIG questions, “If I run the marathon will I die-or end up in the hospital?” Nope, but he said it would be a miracle if I made it past mile 10-my lung capacity was so diminished at this point, he thought it would be impossible to finish. Wow, how inspirational.
Each day, I felt a little better, but still continued to sound like I had been smoking 17 packs of cigarettes a day for my entire life. Luckily, since I was tapering for the marathon, I barely had to run at all. But even the short easy runs were tough. I’d come home and Josh would ask how my run went. I’d lie and sputter out an “Ok” as I was trying not to cough up my liver.
I spent most of that week in tears, thinking that I just needed to give up on trying to run the marathon. I looked into alternative ones that I could run in the next few weeks, but there weren’t any. By Wednesday, I need to decide. People were waiting on me to make their plans and I needed to mentally decide to dedicate myself to doing this or to just say “Maybe next time”. The more I thought about it, the more I realized there will always be a reason not to run. Whether its sickness, time of year, weather, etc. there could and would always be an excuse. I decided that I would run, not care about my time and just hope to prove the doctor wrong.