Sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree? I traveled the world and the seven seas. Everybody is looking for something- Annie Lennox, Sweet Dreams

So, this week’s post was supposed to be about the Krispy Kreme Challenge – a dozen donuts, 5 miles. I was supposed to be telling y’all about running through the streets of Raleigh with Heather and dodging piles of frozen puke but, alas, I can only write about my very uneventful 5 mile run on the treadmill that just happened on Sunday – the first run in 7 days. It was an uneventful run, except for my best canine running friend laying next to the treadmill for an hour, giving me the canine version of the stink eye because I did not choose to run outside and take her with me. Too cold and I’m still a little sick.

This week, my family was visited by the plague, also known as, Influenza Strain A. It seems the flu shot we all got was for Influenza Strain B. It all started on Monday when Colin’s preschool called at lunch to tell me he had a fever of 101 and had to be picked up. They kindly reminded me, as I was hustling him out the door, that he could not come back until he had been fever free for 24 hours without the aid of medication. Ha. They had nothing to worry about. None of us was going anywhere for days. Mike and Carly were sick by Monday night. I came down with it on Tuesday night. It was so miserable. I would not wish this on anyone. Tamiflu is one of the greatest inventions of modern medicine. I am upright and running on Sunday because of it.

Since I could not work and I could not run, I binge watched two seasons of Reign on Netflix. If you have not seen the show, it is about Mary, Queen of Scots and her time at the French Court of King Henry I, waiting around to marry Francis, the Dauphin of France, in some kind of political alliance because the French hate the English and the English hate the Scots. I am kind of surprised I watched this show because it airs on the CW Network (I don’t think you are allowed to watch that network if you are over 30) but I am scraping the bottom of the barrel on Netflix offerings. I am a Game of Thrones, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad kind of girl. I am not into romance. If cupid wants to shoot his arrow, it had better hit someone in the eye and nail their head to a tree. Seriously. With that said, I kind of liked it (there is plenty of sword fighting and some torture) but I don’t know why Mary pines away over that pasty, skinny, blonde Francis. Give me Sebastian, the King’s bastard son, with his dark hair and blue eyes, any day. Or even randy King Henry, who is more age appropriate (the actor who portrays Henry is 43), and who is pretty fly for an old guy, with his 5 day old stubble and those black leather pants he wears in 90% of his scenes. Anyway, (spoiler alert but it is history so you already know they end up married) Mary spends most of Season 1 pining for scrawny Francis until she marries him and most of Season 2 pushing him away for stupid reasons. It required very little thought from my fevered, achy brain.

When I was not rotting my brain with Reign, wondering if I was ever going to stop coughing or  tending to one of my sick children (Mike was on his own, man – every grown up for himself), I did read about running (I read Runner’s World, Running Times and Women’s Running) and pinned a bunch of stuff on Pinterest related to running. I also dreamed about running. I found out that fevers of 103 give you some pretty vivid dreams.

I dreamed I was running in Asheville. I have never run in Asheville (only Boone) but I have wanted to for a long time. It was the perfect temperature and the leaves were green. I also dreamed I was running in Paris. I blame all that French court intrigue for putting that idea into my head. I dreamed I was running from zombies but that was probably more like a nightmare and less like a dream and possibly related to the fact that I determined that, since Colin and I got the sickest from this flu, when the zombie apocalypse comes, we won’t make it past the first wave. It is just as well. We are high maintenance and lack the survival skills Mike and Carly possess. We like warm beds, internet and won’t eat yogurt one day past its expiration date.

Asheville

This prompted me to spend some time thinking up my running bucket list because I had nothing else to do. Where do I dream of running? Some of these races/destinations I will likely experience. Some of them are pipe dreams but I believe in dreaming big.

In no particular order:

Marine Corps Marathon, Washington, DC

Dublin Marathon, Dublin, Ireland

Napa to Sonoma Wine Country Half Marathon, Napa,CA

Yosemite Half Marathon, Yosemite National Park, CA

Rock N Roll New Orleans Half Marathon, NOLA

London Marathon, London, England

Big Sur Marathon, Carmel, CA

New York City Marathon, NYC

Key West Half Marathon, Key West, FL

Red Rock Canyon Half Marathon, Las Vegas, NV

Asheville Half Marathon or 10K, Asheville, NC

Blue Ridge Relay, Roanoke, VA to Asheville, NC (pipe dream because I am not fast enough and don’t have 11 friends crazy enough to do this race with me)

The Bear Foot Race, Boone, NC – 5 miles straight up Grandfather Mountain, finishing in McRae Meadow in the middle of the Highland Games, representing Clan Pollock. I can’t throw a telephone pole but I can run and rock a cute running skirt made out of the Clan Pollock tartan (yes, they make performance tartan – no wool for me).

I wager I would look cuter in my skirt than this dude.

I would not, however, look cuter than this girl in just a sports bra, running up Grandfather Mountain.

Now, I just need to win the lottery and quit my job so I have the time and money to devote to traveling all these places and training to run up a freaking mountain. Talk about hill repeats.

I am happy to be well. I am happy to be able to run, even if it was only 5 miles. I am sad I missed my donut race. The forecast is calling for snow to begin tomorrow afternoon. We will likely be cooped up all together in this house, again, for a few days. Amazon just announced a new show based on some detective books I’ve read so that should hold me over. The treadmill will help me get my runs in but won’t get me out of the house so let’s hope we all survive. I almost bought a pair of Yak Tracks running spikes at REI today just so I could make an excuse to get out of the house and run in the snow. Then, I remembered I like warm beds and the internet and I am not into snow so I put them back. I did buy fresh yogurt, though, so no one will have to eat the expired stuff.