Late Wednesday night I noticed a tingle in my throat as the <a href=”http://www.chrysaliswine.com/offerings.htm#Viognier” target=”_blank”>Chrysalis Viognier</a> 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 href=”http://hometownfestival.org/” target=”_blank”>a 5k</a> already paid for this weekend, <a href=”http://www.skydiveorange.com/” target=”_blank”>skydiving</a> planned, and a trip to <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Islands” target=”_blank”>Solomons</a> added on, this was horrendous timing for a cold.<br/><br/>What did I do? Immediately I googled cold remedies and found my best match to be <a href=”http://www.zicam.com/” target=”_blank”>Zicam</a>, a top-secret formula of <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_gluconate” target=”_blank”>Zinc Gluconate</a>. 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 <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NyQuil” target=”_blank”>NyQuil</a> (no way a 175lb adult should take the same amount as a freaking 12 year old kid), and called it a night.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/><img src=”http://www.iammike.org/cutenews/data/emoticons/thumbup.gif”/> to Zicam, tea, water, NyQuil, and pizza.<br/>