OUC? More like IOU

Went to the doctor today.  The good news is, it's not an -itis or infection. The doctor doesn't even think it was a cold, but bad allergies combined with my asthma. Even better news? Once I took my allergy medicine tonight, I noticed an almost-immediate difference.  So from now on, before I assume I have a cold or something I'm going to use my inhaler and nasal spray and take my allergy medicine to make sure it's not my asthma or allergies.

I gotta whine for a minute.  I mean, haven't I had enough to deal with? 

It's kind of frustrating to find out I have one more thing to worry about . . . I have so many things that affect my life and training that it's hard to juggle. I'm vitamin D- and B12-deficient, so I have to take 50,000IU prescription Vitamin D and give myself B12 shots. I have the inhaler and nasal spray for my asthma and inner ear issues, the foot patches for my arthritis. Sometimes swimming makes me sick because of the vertigo. Then I have to drink a lot because the heart arrythmias make me easily dehydrated. Then there are all the usual athlete issues, like GU making my belly sick and gas and GI issues.  And of course there's the cancer, for which I take medicine as well.  And now allergies, too.

But I feel like, at least I know what I'm facing so I know how to fight it, right? Better the devil that you know.

Anyway, now that I'm done whining, (I know, there are so many people in the world worse-off than me!) the half marathon is ON!

The way I look at the OUC Half?  I'm calling it the IOU Half.  As in, IOU a PR.  IOU good weather.  IOU decent race photos.

Ok, so the weather's going to be FABULOUS, and I can't control the photos, but this course OWES ME a PR.  It was my first half, I'm way more experienced and better-trained, and I have been busting my ass at my weekly speedwork and the 5-mile and 15k races leading up to the Oly.  My all-time half marathon PR is 2:45 - on this course. 

Last year, I was so sick and bogged down by extra weight that I was lucky to finish in 3 hours.

However, just 3 weeks ago, I finished a 6.6-mile run, after swimming almost 1000 yards and biking 22 miles, in 1:27, with a lot of walking.  It is very reasonable to expect that I can do two, 1:20 6.5-mile loops for a total time of 2:40.  But why stop there?  I'm going to shoot for 2:30. 

I will be armed with GU, and my inhaler, and taking allergy meds for several days prior, and all sorts of nonsense.  I know what to do now . . . more than ever.  And if I don't PR?  Well, I know how to handle that, too.

Better the devil that you know, right?

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