The Climb

No, I’m not channeling Miley Cyrus…just merely borrowing a song title. Today I would like to cover 2 issues.

1. Exercise induced rhinitis and rhinorrhea (don’t Google them yet…I promise to explain) and

2. The beastly hill which brings me out of downtown that magically gets bigger.

I know your intellectual neurons are firing off because you’re curious about exercise induced rhinitis and rhinorrhea. Well, put simply, exercise induced rhinitis (EIR) is when you exercise and your nasal passages become inflamed due to the release of histamine. Histamine is known as the “allergy chemical”, but is released throughout the body to serve normal, non-allergy functions. Symptoms due to too much histamine being released are itching, sneezing and running nose. Intense aerobic activity can cause too much histamine to be released, resulting in a case of rhinorrhea. Rhinorrhea is more commonly known as persistent watery mucus discharge from the nose (as in the common cold). I am a victim and survivor of exercised induced rhinitis and rhinorrhea.

Long story short, my nose runs like a BEAST when I run. I’m not talking your typical post-nasal drip, I have a little cold and I need a tissue “discharge.” I’m dead serious talking about consistent, watery, clear snot that keeps coming like the Hoover Dam of my nose has been opened. It is very difficult to run when you keep trying to suck all that garbage back up only to have it flow at 20x the speed as soon as you breathe out your mouth. I’ve tried carrying toilet paper. Toilet paper sticks to sweaty skin when you run and is, therefore, ineffective when needed. I haven’t tried a handkerchief yet (though suggested by a few) for a few reasons. One being it would throw off my running stance to try and grab for it, open it up, blow effectively, package it back up, and put it back. Another reason being that handkerchiefs gross me out. There is nothing that has ever been appealing to me (especially when older men use them) about having a reusable tissue no matter what kind of cute printed fabric you use or if it was Great Grandma Josephine’s from 1852 and it has her initials embroidered on it. I think Kleenex was really on to something when they started boxing tissues and Cottonelle isn’t far behind with toilet paper. Plus I’d have to stick my finger in old nastiness to try and get a corner that may not be soaked in my rhinorrhea…not going to happen, folks. Thus far I have been using the neckline of my t-shirt and, when desperate, my right sleeve when I need to blow. Similar to a handkerchief, but I’m not trying to make my t-shirts pretty. I run in them. I know they’re gross. There is one suggestion I have yet to try because I always forget and I’m never sure when I’m going to run – Zyrtec. Apparently taking an allergy pill about an hour before you run can either reduce or rid your exercise efforts of EIR and rhinorrhea. (Thanks to WebMD and Google definitions for all scientifically-sound information.)

Moving on to number 2…the beastly hill in my town that leads both in and out of downtown. My town is small, but very, very cute. It’s a great place to run with long sidewalks that only end occasionally and flip to the other side of the road and there don’t seem to be many scary on-lookers when I’m out and about. Anyway, there is this hill about 2 miles from my apartment near the local elementary school. It leads to a beautiful downhill, downtown view with trees coming over it to create a nice shade. Enchanting. Magical. Until I turn around and that once beautiful downhill, downtown view becomes dark, eerie and intimidating. The hill is no longer downhill and magical. The only magical thing about this hill is how huge and ridiculous it has become. The words “downtown” and “uptown” take on a whole new meaning. Going “uptown”…not so much fun. It was funny because today as I had turned around and was approaching this hill, David Crowder’s “I Saw the Light” came on my iPod. How true it was because from the bottom of that hill there was no light. I saw tree branches, shade and sidewalk. After I busted over the top of that hill in what I like to think a Rocky-style fashion (though probably looked like Rocky after 1,000 takes of running those stairs), I saw the sun again. And it was bright. And hot. I could come up with some deep, spiritual, encouraging words to say about this hill and give it a metaphor for life or relationships, but it would be forced. In all honestly, this hill sucks and I really have nothing good to say about it, but wanted to share this hardship with you, the reader.

If you’ve stuck with this post until this point, congratulations on keeping up with my rambling. It’s random, but as stated before, honest and raw. Please direct any questions, comments or concerns to the option labeled “comments”…I’d love to hear them!

Here’s my deep reflection on today’s run: When you hear a honk from a car when you’re running on the sidewalk, what does that really mean?

Today’s stats: 4.24 miles, 43.06 minutes, 2 small walking breaks. 82 degrees.