Late Wednesday night I noticed a tingle in my throat as the Chrysalis Viognier went down. What I woke up to Thursday morning was a horrible thing; congestion, sinus pressure everywhere, hurting eyes, general sensitivity, and overall feeling awful. With a 5k already paid for this weekend, skydiving planned, and a trip to Solomons added on, this was horrendous timing for a cold.

What did I do? Immediately I googled cold remedies and found my best match to be Zicam, a top-secret formula of Zinc Gluconate. I ran out to the drugstore, munched down one of their chewables (unfortunately the strawberry flavor goes away after about five seconds, leaving you chewing a semi-metallic tasting cud for another minute or so), and continued with my day. I continued chewing a tablet down every three hours, as prescribed, kept hydrated, and tried to not exert myself too much (5.2 miles of biking and five pull-ups?). Unfortunately, it wasn’t until later in the night after numerous cups of tea and about five slices of pizza that I started feeling any difference in my condition. I guzzled down a double-shot of NyQuil (no way a 175lb adult should take the same amount as a freaking 12 year old kid), and called it a night.

This morning, I woke up around 5am, had another chewable and a small amount on NyQuil, already feeling greatly improved, hit the sack for another three hours. I currently feel as if I’m operating at about 92%; a great improvement over the 40% I’d put myself at yesterday at the same time.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a 24-hour cold. I still do think I have it, but the effects are gone for the most part and I’m not too concerned about the 5k tomorrow. Will I be able to perform my best (was shooting for 19:40)? Likely not. Would I run it if I hadn’t already paid ($28 for a race is not cheap)? Likely not. However, with another 24 hours hours before the start, I can only imagine my condition will improve even further… We’ll see! I’m excited.

to Zicam, tea, water, NyQuil, and pizza.