Getting over the sick and thanking the world

The 50K this weekend was the usual mix of love, hate, elation, and exhaustion, but I'll give you more on that later. The good news: I was finally over the persistent cough that was like the receipts that build up in my wallet. No matter how often I clean them out, new ones pop up to stake out wallet real estate. 

See picture below for most convincing sick faces you have ever seen in a photo.

Party at my house with my sister and Nyquil shots.

I'm pretty sure that autumn was the original cause of my sickness. I like to blame seasons because they can't defend themselves. Luckily, autumn is pretty, and I forgive it.

Leaf party at Joy School.

Along with the awesomeness of getting well before my last race of the year, my mailman brought me this little nugget of good race news too. 

And here are my Boston plans. Plan A: have fun. Plan B: buy all the souvenirs because I'm only doing this once (or at least once every three decades). Plan C: be thankful for the once-in-three-decades experience.

For family night last week, our daughter led a little mini-lesson on thankfulness. I'm thankful that she is so awesome and draws the best trees on the planet. 

And what else am I thankful for?

For big brothers who volunteer to run all the way back to the child center when their little brothers forget their shoes and we didn't realize it until we got to the exit. 

For movie premier parties with friends who are way more funny and creative than me. 

For friends who bring chia seeds to keep them awake at midnight showings of movies. 

For unlimited train rides for kids at the McWane Science Center. That equals a lot of preschooler joy.

What are you thankful for right this second? 

Did you watch Catching Fire yet? My race strategy for Saturday was just to run like Katniss does in the movie. For some reason, her run made me laugh every time. There is no way she runs like that in real life.

Have you had any lingering illnesses this season? How did you get over it? I swear that mine finally went away when I stopped eating so much junk food to prep for my race last week. So could be just a coincidence, but whatever, I'm saying healthy food helped.

Any races that you plan to just run once in your lifetime? I would definitely say that a 100 miler is on that list.