When the moon hits your eyes like a big pizza pie, that's amore
That's Amore, Dean Martin
A lung infection caused by bacterial or viral infection in which the air sacs fill with pus and may become solid. Inflammation may affect both lungs, one lung, or certain lobes.
That's a pneumonia, Dr. Google
On the bright side, I can now spell pneumonia without using spell-check. (Caution rant...and what's with the silent 'p'? It's hard enough to spell without adding red herrings).
Based on the data from the previous ten years, my mid-March mileage should be hovering around 250 miles. Alas, it presently sits at a middling 98.2 miles.
That's a pneumonia.
I usually go to Goodlife Body Pump at least twice a week. I haven't been in three weeks.
That's a pneumonia.
I usually eat three solids (not including second breakfast at 10 AM) every day. Now I have no appetite and all food is tasteless, blah.
That's a pneumonia.
I used to smoke cigi-butts but I quit in my young thirties. DuMaurier, Player's Light, I still get a tingle. I'm now winded like a pack-a-day wheezer.
That's a pneumonia.
And here's the kicker; at my doctors suggestion I got the pneumonia vaccine ($130) in September, three months before being diagnosed.
I am back running as of today. I managed a single 3.5 mile loop and it knocked me flat. Literally flat, I just woke up from a 2 hour nap.
At a 1/2 mile in I considered turning back. I didn't. At one mile in I felt like crawling. I didn't. At 1 1/2 mile I coughed up a lung and left it in a slush pile on Wellington Crescent.
At 2 miles I met Junel Malapad who was out for a 100 km jaunt. He was at 39 km when we met. He kindly ran with me and listened to me wheeze, cough, and generally complain like the old man I am. He's a good person, but this we already know.
Running is such a gift. It gives us untold joy. Our minds brighten, our bodies hum, our loads become light and insignificant in the moment. We become all that we can be; happy, purposeful, bright, and kind. We are invincible. We are proud of our accomplishments and wise in our deeds. We are strong, resilient, and we glow with health and spirit.
That's a running.
Like Joni Mitchell's paved paradise we only miss running when it's gone. Enjoy it now friends for one day you will have only the memory of running and that's a sad memory. Enjoy it now. Embrace it now.
Love the day that is now.
I am happy to be back among the land of runners. I will visit with the back-of-the pack group for a few weeks and hope to move up to my mid-pack homies within a few weeks. Manitoba Marathon is still on the radar, but my lungs will tell for sure.
It's a good day to be alive.
Mike
