I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a little bit of a hypochondriac. With bronchitis, the flu and god only knows what else floating around my office, I was close to certain that my WebMD analysis would have been accurate, landing me with bronchitis. I was also certain that seeking out the actual diagnosis would land me with a prescription to fast-track myself back to training. So this past Thursday, I went to my doctor’s office and he said it was D) None of the above; instead I have “bronchial spasms, with onset asthma due to running in the cold weather.” Since it’s only February and I’m living in the northeast training for a marathon, that diagnosis sounded pretty lame, and got even more lame when he said that I should wait until Sunday to try to run again. With several prescriptions and an inhaler in hand, I left the doctor’s office resolving to take half of the weekend off and try to do my long run on Sunday.
It was a big birthday weekend, and two of my girlfriends decided to celebrate together. The whole weekend of celebrating was fabulous and pretty unique. Even though we went out Saturday night, I was anxious to run Sunday morning, so I did a pretty good job with sticking to the PG drinks. But, unfortunately, when I tried to run the 17 miles that I was planning for Sunday morning, my lungs did not agree with the doctor’s timeline. I got 4.5 miles into the run, and my lungs got tight, I couldn’t catch my breath, and I couldn’t seem to breath in between coughing fits either. I feel like I’m being a little bit of a baby, but I don’t want to force jumping back into training and prolong being sick, which will only mess up training for a longer stretch. Instead of forcing the additional miles, I walked the Brooklyn Bridge, took pictures of the beautiful day and even met a few tourists that gave me a little perspective.
Once I started walking, a couple that was visiting NYC from out of town asked if I could take their picture on the bridge. I took one, and wasn’t thrilled with the scenery because we were in an area of the bridge that was under construction. Whether they wanted me to or not, I walked with them a little further so that I could take a few more pictures for them. They asked if I wanted them to take my picture for me on my phone in return for taking their picture. My initial reaction was a quick laugh and I said that I was all set. And as the words came out of my mouth, they said “You must live here, if you aren’t phased by all of this. You’re really lucky to get to see this all of the time.” I’ll be honest, I would never be the first person to say that I LOVE NYC. But I think in general, I love being excited about things, places and experiences, so to hear a stranger essentially call me out for my lack of enthusiasm about this city, was somewhat of the slap-of-reality that I needed.
I’m not exactly sure that NYC is for me all the time, but there are so many things to appreciate about the city. Since I am here all the time, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the chaos and forget to take in the amazing aspects of New York. While I finished my walk across the bridge, I saw groups of people walking the same walk that I was doing, but coming from different places, and really appreciating it all. I started to look more closely at little details, and as I was thinking of where all of the tourists could be visiting from, I looked down and coincidentally saw this:
While everyone else was getting caught up in the beautiful views of the city, I continued to search for little details across the bridge and found a few more messages that I liked.
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And finally, as I was getting back to the beginning of the bridge, feeling happy about the reminder of appreciation and perspective that the tourist couple provided, yet still a little discouraged that I didn’t power through my long run, I saw this:
Right now, I may feel weak, but I’m going to let myself get healthy, ease my way back into training and then, hopefully, I’ll get stronger.
I hope everyone had a great weekend!
How did you spend your long weekend?
What I’m Running to: New York City – Mason Jennings
Fueled by Endorphins 
10 responses to “Doctor’s Orders & Perspective”
I love your city beyond belief. Seriously, it is absolutely beautiful and it is my ONE spot I want to visit over and over again.
Any way, the asthma due to weather must definitely be serious if you really felt it that way! Take it really easy and don't force it with the runs outside!
Training in the cold is hard enough, so it definitely sounds like taking it easy might be better for you in the “long run.” See what I did there? I am so witty.
sorry to hear about your bronchial issues……think the “rule” is you can keep training if it's above the neck, but below the neck means back off a bit. Considering that your marathon is still more than 2 months away, a little break now won't hurt, and you'll get right back to it, better than ever!
I've come to really love New York over the past few years….every time we go there, we discover more and more fun places. It's not Boston, but it's still pretty cool! :>)
No long weekend over here 😦 we still had class… Wisconsin is the worst!
New York is definitely a cool city, I think sometimes I lose site of that from the chaos during the week and I find that I have to remind myself to appreciate it more. I visited Toronto during my junior year of college and loved it! I would love to go back and possibly run a half or full marathon there.
It's so bizarre about the asthma. I never even knew that you could give yourself asthma. The inhaler is helping and I'm hoping to be back to running outside by the end of the week. Thank you!
Haha very clever!
Thank you for the encouragement! I'm hoping to get back out there by the end of this week and really pound the pavement leading up to the marathon.
Everytime I think I've seen it all in New York, something new comes up and surprises me, which is fun! I definitely miss Boston, though!
Aw that stinks! I thought everyone had President's Day off because my office is pretty strick with giving holidays rather than floating holidays. I hope you still had a great weekend!
Oh my goodness, your picture of the Brooklyn Bridge is beautiful! I am jealous that you had a long weekend, I had work on Monday. But, it's almost the weekend again. So, I guess that's okay 🙂
Thank you! It was a gorgeous day, but absolutely freezing. I hope you had a great week and enjoy this weekend!