Running In Blaze Orange?

In retrospect, maybe it wasn't a good idea to go running through the trails wearing my brown furry coat with white top. Obviously I am only kidding as it is the last weekend of deer hunting here in Wisconsin. During my run yesterday, I did hear gun shots a few times but did not see any hunters, and no, I did not run on a trail through the wood.

Mike, Chaz and I met at Mike's home at 6:30AM on Saturday for another longer run. We planned on doing 17 miles along the same hilly course and even add a few more hills to make it 17. My plan was to run it nice and slow like last week but this time, not pick it up at the end. I was about 28F out when we started but it was sunny so it would warm up some. It is colder now up here so this time I had on 3 shirts (1 long, 2 short) but still wore my shorts. I am not ready to pull out the running tights quite yet. I can handle the cold on my legs so no worries.

Mike and Chaz kept with me for the first 2 miles before they took off and ran close to 8:00 pace as I kept it between 9:20 and 9:30. It was beautiful and calm out and I felt pretty good all the way. I did have one mile under 9:00 but that was because there was a long downhill. I tried hard to keep the pace easy as that is what I am trying to do differently. I ended up averaging 9:22 for the 17 miles.

We sat around talking for awhile before I went home and took a nice hot shower as I was feeling quite cold by then. Little did I know that this was the first sign of worse to come later that night. As I am watching a movie with my oldest princess (The Sound of Music), she tells me she is feeling bad and has an upset stomach. I took her to bed and after I went to bed, I woke up freezing. I put on some sweatpants and a sweatshirt to sleep in under the covers and I was so cold. I also had a headache and felt warm. Yes a fever has hit the house. This morning I woke up still cold and achy all over. It felt like I ran a full marathon the day before I ached so much. I had the oh so fun hot and cold streaks. I even stayed home from Church today with my princess who was sick as well.

It is now 3:30ish and I am starting to feel better. I actually ate something which was good and my headache is starting to go away though it is still there. The achy body is starting to go as well so I am hoping that this was only one of those 24 hour things.

We did have some nice weather yesterday afternoon. It got to about 55 and sunny so I was able to put the rest of the Christmas lights up on the house. They are not on yet as I will wait a few more days. I am going to have to figure out how many lights I have on the house and yard this year. it is more than last year though I am no where near "Clark W. Griswold" levels. The princesses are getting excited about Christmas and will be seeing Santa next weekend. The gifts are being purchased and there are many church services to attend over the next 5 weeks. I will try to squeeze in as much running as I can during this time though I may need to do some of it early in the morning before work.