Crazy for Running?!

The title of this post really does say it all. Today was the Tim Harmon 5K. I signed up for it because its a nice short race snuggled into my schedule of crazy longer distances this summer/early fall. It was also super convenient because it is right near my house (less than a mile from my apartment to the start line). I figured this would be a good opportunity to push myself and see if I could reduce my pace. But what I did not plan for was strep throat! On Tuesday I got sent home from work early because I was not well. I went right to the urgent care facility because I knew something was really wrong. Turns out....strep throat. I went home and slept for the next 18 hours or so. I didn't go back to work until Thursday and even then I wasn't really operating at 100%. When I got up this morning, I knew that running this race wasn't really in my best interest. I haven't really recovered from being sick....and the temp at race time was already in the low 70s. So...warmer weather and me recovering from a 101+ fever earlier in the week wasn't exactly a recipe for success. But I am stubborn. And I paid for the race. So I ran it!

The first sign that this was a bad idea was the fact that I DROVE to the start line! Its a mile from my house! Why would I drive? Because I wanted to save my strength for the actual running part....and because I worried that if I only had the energy to finish then the walk home would be torture :) Next sign...at the start line while I waited for the race to start, I just kept thinking, "can we get this over with already, I want to go back to bed." Yeah not my smartest move :) The race itself was a nice little course around my neighborhood. When we ran right past my apartment building I seriously thought about DNFing and crawling back in bed. BUT I am stubborn. So, I finished the race....in probably one of my WORST 5K times. But I finished. And after the week I had I will take it. So.....on to bed now to finish recovering. My next race is about 6 weeks from now....a 10 miler in Hartwood, Va. Plenty of time to recover and train :) Thanks as always for your support and interest in my running.