Carol of the ills

Forgive me if I’m not in the mood to sing the usual holiday songs this year.

I’ll be home for Christmas;
You can count on me.
Please have meds beside my bed
And Kleenex by the tree….

Swaddled in wool blankets
On this Christmas Eve,
I’ll be home for Christmas…
‘Cause I’m too sick to leave.

Currently Liz and I both have some sort of stomach bug, as indicated by the usual disgusting symptoms. This comes on the heels of several other illnesses; since mid-September, I’ve had four colds and strep throat, while Liz has had three lengthy colds, strep throat, and a sinus infection. Can you guess when we started putting Phil in daycare?

Poor Liz has suffered more than I have. She spent months preparing for the Portland Marathon, but on race day she was too sick to reach the starting line. More recently, she competed at the USATF club cross country meet in Ohio just as a two-week-long cold started to recede. The outcome, while not disastrous, was a far cry from the performances she had delivered in August and early September.

Looking ahead to next year, it’s difficult to commit to any specific running goals when recent history suggests we’ll be fighting off one plague after another. For now, all we can do is run hard when we’re healthy and take it easy when we’re not.

To end on a happier note, here’s my favorite seasonally relevant YouTube video of all time, which was recommended by my aunt Beverly. If, like me, you have a dual fetish for a cappella singing and ’80s pop music, this one really hits the spot.