Silence is Definitely *Not* Golden (A race preamble)

2010 was the year of firsts. I ran my first half marathon and finished my first triathlon.  TriGuy also did his first tri the same day I did my half. We loved the atmosphere of that race weekend so we signed up and booked our room for this year's races as soon as we could. I had been training like a fiend and had even convinced Ann Marie to do the race with me.

The kids still talk like that, right?

Everything was super-peachy. We went on a final training ride the Sunday before our race. At the end of it Ann Marie mentioned I was sounding a bit congested. I was convinced it was due to the bug that had flown up my nose 3 miles in.

I was certain it was still up there despite having blown my nose a good 50-1,000 times.  That night I couldn't sleep because my throat hurt. It was one of those things where you try and try not to swallow because when you do your tonsils feel like ninja throwing stars were just lodged into them. (You can call them Shuriken if you're feeling fancy...or geeky.)

I went to bed but just as I would start getting sleepy, darned if that stupid swallow reflex didn't keep kicking in. I drank water. I sprayed that numbing spray that TriGuy swears by but for some reason just does not work for me.

I called in sick the next day but I really couldn't stay home the day after, since I was teaching a class all morning with a co-worker. I loaded up on Tylenol Cold and skipped off to work. I asked for my co-worker's forgiveness before we started the class.

After a morning of talking my voice was getting a little weak. I went to work again the next day, now on a steady dose of daytime and nighttime cold medicine. By the afternoon I was pretty much just down to squeaking. I had also started coughing and since I work at a hospital that meant I had to wear a mask.

My clients were perplexed.

Thursday morning I was completely voiceless; squeakless, if you will.  Even my coughing was silent.

I texted our scheduler at work asking her to please cancel my families, since clearly I could not call them.  I emailed my boss.  I drove to my doctor's office (again, couldn't call) where the on-call doctor said I had a virus.  He told me to enjoy my race and return if my sinuses or ears started hurting. I went home and started packing.

Smash cut to Thursday night:

I asked the wise world of Facebook for earache advice.  I googled earache remedies.  I stuffed a bunch of rice in a sock, threw it in the microwave and slept with it against my ear.

The next morning my hearing was MESSED UP.  I was hearing double and distorted.

It was freaky. Soon after, I really couldn't hear anything out of my left ear.

I truly could neither hear,

nor speak.

Regardless, we headed out to our fabulous race weekend. On Saturday I watched TriGuy PB on his tri!

We sat out on the balcony and waited eagerly (though quietly) for Ann Marie to arrive and prep for the next day's race!

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