Friday, November 9, 2018

Dallas Marathon: An Update

Well, as soon as I made my Dallas Marathon plan public information, my body got wind of what I had up my sleeve and promptly shut down.

At the time of writing this post, I have been sick for 7 full days, which is longer than I've ever been sick, continuously in my entire life, to my best recollection. Every day I'd go to sleep after hydrating like crazy, taking medicine, drinking all the tea, going to bed early, skipping runs, and expect to wake up and *finally* feel like myself. And every day I'd wake up and think, "Shit, how am I still sick?!?!"

With each day that passed, I felt my marathon training slip a little further and further out of the realm of possibility. I gave myself until Thursday in hopes that I could salvage one speed workout feeling 100%. But guess what! Nope. I woke up. Still sick. Although a million times better than I was feeling.

I'm bummed because I really did want to take one more crack at 26.2 miles this year. But it'll have to wait until next fall. On the bright side, if my body was going to decide that it didn't want to run another marathon, I'm thankful it was the immune system portion and not the muscular-skeletal portion. One is a much quicker turn around overall. Unfortunately in a six week training cycle with a three week taper, being sick for 1+ weeks really does a number on things.

I am excited to run the half marathon in Dallas. Despite the significant hills that the elevation map is showing me, I think I can wrap my brain around one more crack at a hard effort 13.1 miles this year. I have a really strong endurance base from the marathon, and since I don't have to taper as extremely for a half, I have a couple of extra weeks of training to fine tune some speed. Plus since it's a vacation to see a friend, I'll have more time to relax and enjoy myself without being worried about OMG ANOTHER MARATHON.

So I'm bummed, but I'll survive. And I'll be more than amped up to start tackling crazy long-long runs again once this summer rolls around.

And this means that maybe Dominique and I can run together (hopefully I can stick with her better than I did in 2012, woof!).




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