My fastest 5K yet, scaring myself with my reflection, and douching my nose.

And really, how could you not read after that?

Remember how I finally broke 40 minutes when I ran the EA Sports Challenge 5K earlier in the month?  But that I wasn't completely sure that I really had?  It wasn't chip timed, and I've never completely trusted timing done any other way.  (Maybe because I don't know how they do it.  People tell me it's really very accurate.)  Anyhow, so, as everyone advised me to do, I took it but in the back of my mind I just wasn't convinced.

Today, I am starting to believe that I may have very well run 0:37:51 at that race.  Because, my cilley friends, today I did a 5K in 0:36:47. 

I finally got my iPod to work correctly.  I reset it to factory settings, reoriented the footpod sensor in its pouch and snugged the pouch up against the laces.  You know, all the stuff that shouldn't make a bit of difference but, if you've grown up with computers, you know that it actually does.  And when I got up this morning, it wasn't raining.  So I put on my new fleece top -- the one I haven't gotten to wear outdoors yet since it's been raining for two weeks straight -- and headed to the college track.  Where I ran 5K, without stopping, in 0:36:47, beating my previous time by more than a minute. 

I'm sure that there are a lot of you who could run a 5K in that time with one leg tied behind your back, and I'm okay with that.  I hope to inspire all those people who are moose like me who don't believe they could ever run.  Because you can.  Who cares if you're slow?  I'm slow, and I've done 20 races this year -- heck, it took me 20 races to break 40 minutes for my 5K time -- but I never have been last.  Second to last, oh yes, but never last.  And I'd be okay if I was last.  There are some pretty freakin' fast people in Cilleyland.  Kara freakin' Goucher lives in Cilleyland.  I deal.

So, I'm beginning to believe.  I must have run faster than I thought I did at the 5K race, though, because I did walk part of that course and I?  Am a slow walker.  I did a race recently where an old woman with a crutch was faster than me.  By a lot.  And I wasn't even walking that whole race.  I am not making this up.  I checked her bib number after the race and she was like five minutes ahead of me.  But I'm laughing about that.  She had a crutch.  She didn't even walk like people with a crutch usually walk.  She had something else going on.  With a crutch.  *snerk*

Anyhow, on with the story.  A little more than an hour after I got home, had my breakfast, downloaded my results from my iPod, blah blah blah, I went to take a shower because I'm working all weekend.  I was looking down at the bathroom sink when I flipped on the light and then I looked up at my reflection and did one of those double takes.  People, my face was MAGENTA.  My entire face.  I am not making this up.  I've been flushed before -- well, to be honest, often -- after exercising.  But never quite this shade of, yes, magenta.  I was like, Holy crap!  Am I having a heart attack and don't realize it?  I did a quick check and no, except for a stiff hip I felt great.  But, as I've mentioned before, I am a pasty white girl with rosacea currently not taking the rosacea meds and running in the cold into a freezing headwind while running your fastest 5K time ever, and apparently that will turn you magenta.  I matched my shoes, that's how pink my face was.

As for why I'm not taking my rosacea meds, that's because those are a very low-grade antibiotic (rosacea is believed to be a bacterial overgrowth in the face, hence the redness -- who knew?) and I can't take them and my heavy duty antibiotics for sinus infections at the same time.  Which actually aren't working all that well.  I have the sinus infection that will not die.  Did you ever see the episode of Grey's Anatomy where this guy came in with a persistently runny nose and it turned out that spinal fluid was leaking out his nose?  Worried me to no end, let me tell you.  I'm sure that when I get my CT scan that's what they'll tell me is happening.  Or, even better, did you ever see the episode of CSI:  Original Recipe where the guy got a fungal infection in his sinuses and not only was this black goo leaking out of his eyeballs (only after he was dead, I hope) but the fungus had eaten his sinuses and his skull away so that it collapsed into itself?  Completely squicked me out.

It might help if I start up the sinus wash again.  For those of you who are lucky enough not to have regular sinus infections, or who have a low squick threshold, let me explain.  A sinus wash is where you fill a small bottle with warm water and the cleansing sinus mix stuff and then you whoosh water up one nostril to flow out the other side, in the process washing out allergens and mucous and reducing inflammation.  Basically, it's a douche for your nose.  You might have heard it called a neti pot, which involves an actual teapot looking thing, but I'm not that coordinated.  Many people swear by this.  I do find that it helps quite a bit.  But the thing is, it's not really high on my list of a good time.  The kit I got comes with premixed sinus wash stuff.  When that ran out, I put together my own; it's just a mix of salt and baking soda.  My allergist gave me a recipe for it.  And the man smokes crack, apparently.  He told me the mixture "might be a little more salty than you're used to."  Fuck that, I thought my head was going to burst into FLAME.  Tip:  do not shoot water with a high saline content up your nose.  The inside of my head was on fire, my ears were on fire (they connect to your sinuses, you know), my throat was on fire.  I was laying on the floor, beating my feet and hands against the carpet, just waiting to die.  I could not stand up, the pain was that intense.  It finally faded a smidge, such that I could stand and wash out my sinuses with plain water. 

I've got the recipe down now (not the one my allergist gave me, the sadist) but I can always tell there's baking soda in it, and not in a good way.  I imagine snorting cocaine must be similar.  But it does help and I should start doing it, if only so that I can tell my allergist that I did everything I was supposed to and I still have this sinus infection. 

Well, I hope I have entertained you today with images of my skull on fire or leaking spinal fluid or black goo.  That is what I'm here for.  In other news, I did not binge on sushi last night.  I may tonight.  On the other hand, I am trying not to binge -- as in, excessively exceed my calories for the day -- until after November 30 and my weigh in.  Hopefully I will have good results at that time that will convince me not to binge.  At least, if you eat a lot of sushi it's just sushi.  You have to eat a lot -- and I mean a lot -- to really rack up the calories.  Maybe if I make a list of what I'm going to get and then only get that; my downfall is always when I'm placing the order.  I think, let's just add one more item, and then later they're rolling me down the hall.  Okay, not that bad but you know what I mean.  I think that will be the plan.  In the meantime, I hope your day is going great!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl