Chicken Pox

I am starting to wonder how much negative karma my husband and I have built up over our past lives because it seems that we are in a payback zone these last 5 years. The latest issue is that Reilly has come down with Chicken Pox. Yes, Chicken Pox! She was vaccinated for it and I was under the belief that this meant you wouldn't get Chicken Pox but apparently that isn't the case. There have been a handful of cases within her daycare in the last two weeks and according to the Public Health policy that the daycare follows, your child can still attend the daycare as long as they don't have a fever. Given that Chicken Pox is highly contagious and can spread outside of a fever, we knew it was going to be a matter of time before the girls came down with it. As of this morning Reilly had no fever and despite having a couple of dozen spots over her body she was otherwise fine, so off she went to daycare to spread the love. I am only hoping Reilly truly does get a milder case given that she has had the vaccine, for of all people she doesn't need this additional stress on her body. And of course we had a full social calendar this coming weekend that included a BBQ on Saturday and a birthday party on Sunday that will need to be cancelled. I have no idea how this will affect our long weekend plans the following weekend. One day at a time I guess. I am really trying to keep my sense of humour and roll with this punch but I feel like throwing up my hands to say "what else" but I am afraid to for I know it can get worse. Knowing my luck, I will develop Shingles given that my immune system is already compromised (Shingles is something you can develop if you are exposed to Chicken Pox but have already had it in your childhood). I am crossing my fingers and toes that this won't happen. We do know that it is inevitable for London to get it too and I am hoping that she actually comes down with it in the next day or two so we can just get it over with. The funny thing is, ever since I have seen Reilly's spots I am constantly feeling itching all over my body. The itching is real but I know my mind is causing it to happen. Here is to an interesting weekend ahead.

On a running note, one of our group members is good friends with Predrag Mladenovic. He won the Mississauga Marathon in 2007 with a time of 2:23. Predrag came out to speak to us about his experience with the objective of providing those who were running this weekend with some additional motivation and/or inspiration. He was quite a humble man with an amazing sense of humour. Apparently in his past, his running career was mainly geared to shorter distances and if I remember correctly his fastest 10k time was 30 minutes and change. Incredible. His talk was definitely more on the entertaining side as he admitted going through a moment of panic when he was at the start line of the Mississauga marathon as he processed the fact again that he would need to run 42k and basically what did he get himself into. So it was great to hear that even someone of his calibre acknowledged that 42k is a long and challenging distance. Of course we were all interested in his training regime, his peak mileage, what he eats before and during a race, etc. but he wasn't as forthcoming with that information. I don't think it was because he didn't want to share but rather he is so in tune with his body and what it needs that he viewed all this stuff as an individual thing. One interesting thing I did note though is that he did mention that his longest run during his training cycle up to the/a marathon is only 30k. The wheels have been turning for me since this comment as to how I might integrate this piece of information within my own training, we will see.