Uncle Bob Meets Auntie Histamine

After Sunday’s running disaster, I waited until this evening to get back on the trail. Hyde Park was really beautiful tonight, especially once I got into Kensington Gardens and the sun was shining through the trees, the light all dappled on the grass – picnicers enjoying wine and hoping that they didn’t get run over by the lithe footballers.

It was so fragrant ... the smell of all the flowers mixed with blowing grass and blooming trees and oh my stars maybe I really don’t have emphysema, maybe it is only hay fever.

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I tend to think in extremes. I imagine worst-case scenarios and then play them out as a given end result. It's probably not healthy, but at least I'm used to it.

The past month or so I’ve noticed a heaviness in my chest. The only way I can describe it is it’s the soreness I used to get when I was a kid in Southern California and had spent several hours on my bike despite the smog warning. I ‘d come home and it’d hurt to breathe. Lately I’ve been feeling a lesser version of that. And despite not having had a cigarette for months, I still have this annoying morning cough and the slightest remnants of lung batter. I'm also sneezing a lot more than normal.

I was relating all this to the clerk in a health food shop yesterday (my original intent was to get some glucosamine for my rickety knees) and it turns out she was a nutritionist. She said that pollution has been bad here in London so before I invested in the iron lung, I should try her herbal allegery remedies. I’m all for holistic and natural remedies, but I loaded up on Zyrtec as well. We’ll see.

Feel a little beter about the running today. Made it 45 minutes non-stop with only a few knee twinges. I think if I get through the marathon, I’m going to only worry about 10Ks for a spell.

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Speaking of hay fever, I'm seeing Dame Judy in it on Friday night. I'm hoping I don't sneeze throughout the show.