After spending all day yesterday in bed trying to sleep off this cold I seem to have caught and then coughing and hacking myself through a day at work, I decided that there was no way I could pass up the only 50 degree day in the foreseeable future and headed out after work for my longest run to day: 5 miles.  I was having no luck on the computer trying to map out a route as all of the mapping sites seemed to have failed on me this afternoon, nevertheless I changed at work and left in my car to map out 5 miles near the high school track.  There wound up being a perfect 3 mile bow-tie shaped loop that ended at the school track where I figured I could finish up with 2 quick miles around.  I packed my pockets with cough drops and started hiking up the hill from where I parked my car to the cross street that marked the start of my route.  I was worried starting as I felt a little winded just walking up the hill so I popped in a throat lozenge as I hit the street and started to run.  For the first mile it was mostly uphill though not at too steep of a grade, the road was fairly deserted and I passed another runner and a walker going in the opposite direction pretty soon into the run, but after that I was on my own other than a couple of people outside at their homes.  Running along a new route was refreshing for my mind and although I was definitely maintaining a fairly slow pace, the time was flying by.  After the first mile the road that I turned onto leveled out for a bit as I went by a bunch of fields and past some rushing streams overflowing from all of today’s melted snow.  At the two mile mark I began a pretty steady downhill which felt good for my legs to pick up some speed and time was still flying by, I was out of the brisk wind that I had been running into up until that point and I took off my outer jacket and enjoyed the feeling of the sun beaming down onto my bare arms as I descended the hill.  As I reached the bottom of the hill and turned for a brief uphill that would finish up my 3 mile loop and bring me to the school track I was in the shadow of the valley and the wind had picked up again so I put the coat back on; nevertheless the thought that I had been able to run in just a t-shirt, albeit briefly, was a cheerful one that really gave a lift to my spirits.  As I crossed the field towards the track, I realized that my decision to cut across there rather than climbing the hill and going through parking lot was going to cost me some cold wet feet and a chance for blisters, but I was having such a good run at that point that I just shrugged it off figuring that I needed to learn how to run in wet shoes sooner or later.  As my feet hit the track I started a countdown of the laps to go, 8, 7, 6, 5, the first four laps flew by as I reached the four mile mark and headed into the first lap of my fifth mile knowing that I really was going to run further than ever before.  Midway through the 5th lap my knees felt a little achy but I adjusted my stride a little bit and soon the aches had faded away into the previous laps.  Before I knew it I was on my last lap and I put the afterburners on to hurry myself around to my mental finish line.  I was breathless as I finished my 5 miles but felt very accomplished at the same time and I hadn’t even had a coughing attack the entire time!  I have no idea of my pace, I know that even when I was going downhill I felt slow and I hadn’t bothered to bring my watch or mp3 player or anything to track the time with, however for how crappy I felt yesterday and today as well, to be able to finish 5 miles and have them feel as easy as if I had run just 3, or 4 felt like quite the victory to me.  Mentally it makes me feel much more confident about my looming first 10k race.  The other great mental boost that I received was from the thought somewhere midway through my run that generally if I was sick I would happily take it as an excuse to curl up in bed with a book and some warm blankets and do a whole lot of nothing.  Today, however, was different, I really wanted to get this run in, I couldn’t imagine skipping this run or missing out on this beautiful day.  Even when I knew it meant that I certainly wouldn’t garner any sympathy points later in the evening if I then didn’t want to do something because I was sick after running 5 miles, I still didn’t want to pass up this run.  To top it all off I felt good during the run, really good, better than I had since getting sick and it has lasted into the evening as well.  Once again it’s amazing what a little fresh air can do for the one’s spirits and one’s health.