Battling the Running Addiction

So first of all, 10 days from now I will be high in the sky on my way to Trinidad to represent Canada at the NACAC Cross Country Championship...

4 days ago I was at the hospital with a fever of 104 where a chest x-ray determined that I have...

Yep, you guessed it- Pneumonia.

I'm pretty sure I'm living through every runner's nightmare right now- Months of pounding pavement in hail storms, sweating through core circuits in the basement, and countless lost toenails about to swirl down the drain right before the Big Day.

Any runner who has ever been sick can relate to the unescapable internal battle that is on constant replay in your head:

Am I really too sick to run?

I don't feel thaaaaaat bad...

So I'm hacking up phlegm and have trouble standing up, no big deal!

Wait... if this one run causes me to completely relapse I'll be stuck inside for another week!

That's it I'm going to lie here and not move until I'm completely recovered!

But I'm losing all of my hard-earned fitness!

...You get the idea. And you probably understand why I, an open anti-treadmillist, must haul together every ounce of my will power not to step onto my mother's treadmill that is calling me from the corner.

...I had a weak moment yesterday but I didn't have my left shoe laced up before I was caught red-handed and sent back to my new worst enemy- the couch.

Yup, it's a brutal battle that every runner will surely face at some point...

My name is Jillian and I have a running addiction.