1 Minute

Ciara has a cold. She’s got a nasty cough, congestion and is running a fever. Last night we coaxed her and Alex to bed at 7:45 PM. Shannon and I then cleaned up the house, got ready for today, relaxed for a few minutes and decided that we should hit the sack early. We figured Ciara would probably not sleep through the night and would have us up. So it was lights out at 9:12 PM. Exactly one minute later at 9:13 PM, Ciara started crying and calling out “Daddy!” She knows I’m a sucker and that I will go get her in a heartbeat, so she usually calls out for me. That was a record short night’s sleep for us: 1 minute! The next 3 hours were spent trying to get her comfortable as she struggled with her congestion and shifting back and forth between burning up and shivering. I brought her into our bed since I can’t fit into her crib. We rocked, snuggled, rubbed her back, and sang songs, while she blew her nose, cried, screamed and expressed her misery. After midnight, the medicine finally seemed to suppress her cough and allow her to breath clearly enough where she could sleep. The next problem was that Ciara hunkered into her position where she snuggled her head into Shannon’s neck with her body perpendicular to ours, so Ciara’s feet were perfectly placed to kick me in the face and chest. So after she sleep kick boxed my head for a while, I had enough and decided to relocate to the downstairs couch at about 1 AM. It was cold downstairs so I slid into my North Face mummy bag and tried to fall asleep. I finally dozed off but then awoke to being really hot. Mummy bags are toasty indoors. I tossed and turned and at 5:00 AM decided to just get up and go out for my run. I ate a banana, dressed for the below freezing temperature, slapped on my headlamp and off I went. I sensed that I was half asleep during the run because I kept getting startled by the jackrabbits scampering about. In the pre-dawn hours I normally see tons of rabbits along this route so it’s no big deal. But this morning it kept freaking me out, like there were rabid varmints attacking me. I definitely was not fully awake. I ended up completing the 12.5-mile route in 1:33 (7:30 pace). I was happy to get in a solid workout after dragging through a long night. I was psyched with my dedication to my current training plan, which is focused on completing the Miami Marathon in 3:15. I have not been able to go sub 3:30 in any prior marathon and realize that in order to achieve that goal I need to follow through with every training run. Plus I figured it was also good preparation for the Vermont 100 where I’ll be running in the dark while extremely tired!

This was my view on the run this morning:



This is what I wished I was seeing:

Or maybe this is what I was dreaming of: