(April 15, 2020)
In the ten years I have been running I have become better
attuned to my body as every year passes.
My fitness has made me aware of when even something slight seems off and
if it really nothing at all or something that I should be adapting to or
something I need to persevere through.
It has really paid off with many benefits not the least being that I
rarely get sick with a cold or flu.
As we were awaiting my wife’s COVID-19 test results which we
were certain was positive I started to sense things were wrong in my body. I wasn’t sure if they were real or my
imagination running wild with COVID-19.
First, it seemed I was coughing more after my workouts and my chest felt
funny. But after I finished every
workout there was no physical traces that made me feel unhealthy. I was excited to get to Good Friday because I
didn’t have to work, so I could take my time before I ran. It would be more relaxing that way. Unfortunately, the county parks had been closed
due to the outbreak, so I would have to do a road route I have established over
time around two local lakes and it totaled about 6.6 miles a moderate workout
for me. I felt pretty good at the end of the run when I checked my Garmin to
see my run results and everything seemed in line until I took a double take at
my heart rate. It had soared to numbers
I had never even come close to before. My average heart rate was 196 BPM spiking to
213. I had never even spiked to that
average on runs that were much more strenuous or even faster. While I normally don’t put that much stock in
the accuracy of these numbers on watches these were too high to ignore. I was also nervous because I had heard that
one of the signs of coronavirus was that you were not getting enough oxygen
through your blood.
The next morning a Saturday is traditionally my long run day
but was a little scared to try a long run.
Those heart rate readings had scared me.
Yet I wanted to log some miles so I decided on doing a long walk. The same 6.6 mile course I did on Friday, I
would walk instead. While it felt great
to be outside I definitely felt off. My chest felt funny and I even considered
just going back home about halfway yet I am always focused on getting my miles
in, so I continued on. As I scaled the
last uphill portion of my walk I started coughing. I was obviously struggling a bit.
I got home, made something for my wife for lunch and then
took a shower and then – I pretty much collapsed. All of a sudden I was
extremely tired and couldn’t stay awake and fell asleep for a couple of
hours. When I awoke I had a fever and
was achy.
It was obvious to my wife, who got her results this same day
that she was positive for COVID-19, that I too had COVID-19.
It hit me hard because one of the reasons I work out is to
build up my immune system. I said to
myself that I am healthy and am in much better shape than most men my age I
mean I can do ultra-marathons!
I will beat this in a couple of days I thought to
myself. I haven’t been laid up for more
than two days in the entire thirty years my wife and I have known each other.
Fortunately, my wife was now feeling much better so we
switched roles and she took care of my meals.
(It should be noted that while she just got her test results that day
she took the test over a week ago and we had tried getting her tested two weeks
before that. So she probably had had it
for some time.) I was isolated to our family room so as to not infect our
son. Before this, I pretty much had the
entire downstairs including the kitchen to myself and my son (Who also had his
bedroom) and my wife had the bedroom and office on the 2nd
floor. In my mind, now that both have
tested positive pretty much the whole house was infected. Even so, I was isolated and she cleaned the
rest of the house and hoped for the best when my son ventured out of his room
for a meal.
Usually when I get sick I rest one day and while I may not
be 100% I am ready to function the next day.
This was different I took two days to rest up and listen to my body but
it made no difference. In fact I was in
a battle between my head and my body.
All my body wanted to do was sleep but my head knew lying down was
dangerous with COVID-19 because it liked to attack the lungs.
I knew it was going to be a battle and I knew that it would
be a battle that my head would win and COVID-19 would lose. What I didn’t know however was that it was
going to be a long battle. I had written
earlier that during ultra-marathons there are times when you are in pain and
want to give up. That it was a mental
game to keep going. After a few days of
a high fever, fatigue, and a persistent cough I realized that this was now a
mental game I was having with COVID-19.
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