Reading Recap and Multiple Illnesses

It all started with the tots.

Friday night I was planning on taking it easy since I wanted to get to bed early and do well at the KCPL Racing to Read 5K on Saturday morning. My friend Jenn invited me to a happy hour on Friday evening that seemed right up the "taking it easy" alley. Her boyfriend Shane, who is the reigning 2009 Cincinnati Tater Tot Eating Champion, was granted an all-you-can-eat tot party for 20 of his closest friends by Bar Louie (who sponsored the tot-eating contest) as part of his victory spoils. So at 5 p.m., I was at Bar Louie and hungry for tots.

I'm not sure whether it was the tots, too many Blue Moons, or some of the crap I ate later that evening, but by about midnight, I felt not-so-great. After a few hours of bellyache followed by a violent exorcism of evil from my digestive tract, I got some sleep and was feeling bright and chipper by morning.

My brother Nick called me at about 8. He had made a last-minute decision to come run the 5K with me. Despite the previous evening's illness, the run went well. My goal is to get my 5K time under 30 minutes this summer, and so coming in at 30:35 was not too shabby for the first try. I was impressed that my brother (who is a great athlete but not a runner) was able to keep up with me through the whole race.

After the race, we gobbled up our free pancakes from First Watch, and I headed home to get showered and changed for football. Football was exhausting after the race, but the rest of the weekend was a lot of fun. Matt and I took the Gangsters, Gamblers, and Girls tour of Newport Saturday night, and it was really interesting and entertaining. So much history; it was just fascinating. They are going to be running the tour again in the fall, and I highly recommend checking it out.

Monday night I got through a mile on the treadmill before feeling crampy. Something was definitely wrong. I had a restless night of sleep, then woke up feeling worse Tuesday. After about an hour at the office, it became apparent that whatever it was wasn't going away. I took the rest of the day off, and spent most of it hugging porcelain. By mid-afternoon, I was feeling a little better and gingerly sipped down a vanilla milkshake. Things got better from there. Today, I am back to about 99%.

I'm pretty sure I've narrowed down the possible causes of my second illness to some mediterranean rice and bean salad that I ate Monday afternoon. I got it off the olive bar at Kroger. I guess the fact that there is a sneeze-guard on those things should have sent up a red flag... ugh.

So, two lessons learned: 1.) No more food from anything under a sneeze guard and 2.) Tots should be eaten in moderation.