Not through hell, probably not through high water, but possibly, through a sinus infection

Is a sinus still a sinus if it's no longer a cavity, but a goop-filled pocket of complete suckage? Because I have 2 of THOSE right now.

I'm usually pretty good at listening to my body and taking a break to recover from illness or injury, but sometimes enough is enough and I just need to run already, damnit. On Wednesday, when despite blowing my nose (and nearly blowing out my eardrums) every 5 minutes I decided I needed to run. I had also decided that despite tweaking something near my knee changing out kegs at work, I needed to do at least 6 miles. While 3 miles would have been enough to break a sweat and burn off some comfort food, 6 is purely a mental number. It's the distance I run the most because I can do it in under and hour or - if really crunched for time and highly motivated - in about 45 minutes. Running 6 miles means I'm not that sick, whereas being unable to complete the distance would signify that I either need a trip to urgent care or am severely out of shape. So jumping up on the treadmill on Wednesday (I was not going to push Alexis in the stroller with the knee pain and dripping nose), I knew I had to just cover up the display with a towel and knock it out before I had to a chance to second-guess my decision.

Never mind that I had just taught spin class the night before. You other runners out there know that when you need to run, you need to RUN, and no other activity will suffice.

And thus 6 miles at about an 8:15 pace happened, and I survived to blow through another box of Puffs. While still annoyingly congested, I'm no worse for the wear, and actually found myself breathing better with my heart rate elevated. Too bad it doesn't work like that while I'm running around the restaurant.

Getting back to my regular routine after a week of feeling crudy is still somewhat challenging, though. On the back of my mind is the trail half-marathon I signed up for that takes place on the 25th of this month. I haven't run more than 10 miles since before Thanksgiving. For the $35 entry fee, I definitely don't feel obliged to go run my best race ever, but I want to feel somewhat prepared verses just slogging through it just to check a trail distance event off a bucket list. I don't have a bucket list, anyway.

But slog, I likely will, so I'm hoping at least for good weather and nice scenery. I may leave the ipod at home, too, along with the Garmin. Have you ever opted out of racing in an event to simply participate in it, instead? It's hard for me to swallow my pride sometimes, especially now that I pay to enter these races (as opposed to being shoved onto a bus to run cross country races in upstate NY), but I know that not everything needs to be done for a medal or for time. Some runs are about so much more.

Tomorrow, I will be participating in this virtual run at 11:00 EST / 9:00 MST. We don't know Sherry and I am only somewhat "acquainted" with her cousin via the blogosphere, but this virtual run is an important event taking place to honor Sherry and - in my mind - all victims of senseless tragedy. It's so hard to wrap our minds around why bad things happen to people who have done nothing but give their hearts and souls to their families and communities, but coming together for this run is a way to prove there is still SO much more goodness out there.