Another hiccup that turns into sickness

It was Friday. The first day of speed camp. I was very excited and as I had said previously, a little nervous. We were to do the super g and downhill courses set in the proper manner, with timing gates and radar guns to check speed. In the morning I felt weird. My head was pounding like when I have a hangover, but I hadnt drunk for four days. I put it down to nerves and made it up to the mountain. The nature of the camp means that there is a lot of waiting around at the top of the course. Waiting for coaches, waiting for other people to complete the run, waiting for the ruts to be cleared when possible, wait wait wait. Although it was a pleasant day of about +1 or +2 degrees, I started wavering between being really hot and really cold. I had been waiting for about an hour and I knew something was wrong. I did my run (ok effort - a lot of fog made me a tad apprehensive) and made my way to lunch. As soon as I sat down I knew I had a cold or the flu. I ate my lunch and excused myself from the rest of the afternoon, catching a cab home. I went straight to bed and slept for three hours like a baby. When I woke up I was probably about three times worse than when I went to sleep. I knew I had a viral infection (my cough was wet) so I took a couple of antibiotics. My body was wrecked with pain, in the joints and tendons, so I took some panadol too. I was devastated. This was the penultimate part of my training and I was going to miss it due to sickness. The others would be way ahead of me in terms of experience because I knew I wouldnt be able to do the rest of the speed camp. I wanted to curl up and cry - it was such bad luck, I havent felt this sick in years, and I mean really really sick, I couldnt balance when walking, I couldnt hear anything, I had trouble breathing, I had a fever, my chest felt like someone was stabbing it each time I coughed, and my head just felt like a big lamb chop. The sickness continued Saturday day two of the speed camp. I stayed at home and slept all day. I woke to eat and go to the toilet and that is about it. Saturday night there was a big party at a local Kimberley resident's house and everyone was invited. I had to miss that too. I was in bed at 7.45pm on Saturday night and slept until 7.45 the next morning. I have never slept for so long in my life. Today is day three and the last day of speed camp. I woke up to see the biggest snowflakes ever falling. They were like big fluffy balls of cotton wool. So not only do I miss the speed camp and the big party last night, I miss the powder day today. It is still snowing chunk balls of cotton wool, there has been about 25 centimeters and forecast is for this to continue for another two days which could possibly bring us a meter of new snow. Hopefully by Tuesday I will be well enough to go back skiing. At the moment all I can do is rest and fight this bastard of a flu. I remember my religious friend once telling me, in the middle of a plane flight that felt like we were going to crash, that "everything happens for a reason". It is a comforting thought that one and something I have been focussing on the whole time I have been sick. There must be a reason why I am sick, and why I have missed out on all these great things. The reason still eludes me but could it have something to do with constantly being challenged? Is this just a test for me so I can suceed later on? Only time will tell.

For now sleep and more sleep.