TITLE: I Run Again
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: June 09, 2008  4:48 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
I haven't written about running for a while now, in
large part because I have not been running for a while
now.  On May 2, I ran a great fast workout, my fastest
in many months.  I was stoked and feeling ready to
train for the Sturgis Falls half-marathon at our local
summer festival.

Later that morning, I came down with the same symptoms
that had ransacked me for
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2007-05.html#e2007-05-15T19_48_46.htm">
   six months last year</A>:
headache and a strange but deep fatigue.  Exertion
magnified both inordinately.  So I rested.

After nine days, I felt a little better but not well.  I
tried 3.5 easy miles and was back at the beginning.  So
I rested.

I felt a little better at times but never well.  I went
to the doctor, who revisited our diagnostic efforts from
last year.  He drew an extra large dose of blood and ran
tests for a wide array of possible causes: iron deficiency,
B-complex vitamin deficiency; liver, kidney, and thyroid;
myelomas, mononucleosis, and several others.  The tests
came back clean.

That is great news; I don't yet seem to be sick with
anything major.  But it is also bad news; we don't know
what's up.

I have been feeling a bit better but, still, not well.
Late last week, I finally began to feel as if I was
losing fitness in my legs.  Surely my legs were leaving
me earlier, but now they felt like it.

This morning I decided to test the road again.  I ran 3
easy miles.  My hamstrings said, "Remember me?"  The
rest of my legs felt like they'd been off for five weeks.
So far, I have not had the dull ache in my head, only
the fuzziness that accompanies the unusual fatigue.  I
have managed to work all day.  That feels like good news.

At this point, the June 29 half-marathon is out.  If I can
get back to regular runs in the next two weeks, I may try
to run the accompanying 5K at a recreational pace.  If
things go ll right the rest of the month, I think I will
try to run an October marathon -- relatively local, and
relatively relaxed.  But a small desire is still there.

I'll run again tomorrow.
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