Whatever has hit my kids over the past week seems to have spread to me. My wife had to return from work last Thursday and my plans to run all day Friday as my last long training run for H.U.R.T. 100 were cancelled by my son being too sick to go to preschool two days straight. (I made the most of my forced running abstinence by finishing overdue blog reports all day.) My younger son has had a "tummy ache" off and on for days, puking all over the seat at a lower-end sushi buffet 2 days ago, though he was able to keep two ice cream cones down right after while mortified mommy waited at the front with his brother.
Anyone who knows me know I eat a lot, constantly grazing, but today, I haven't had anything and the thought of food makes me want to throw up, on top of my constant nausea. Last night I slept poorly due to uncontrollable acid reflux, along with shaking chills that started while finishing a call center shift that ended at midnight last night-- utter hell. No energy. I can't imagine even running 3 miles right now, much less 100 of brutally technical terrain in tropical heat for which I am completely unacclimatized.
I DID make it through my shift today however. I would have called in sick, but that would mean an extra weekend shift in March, part of a new sick policy among our group that usually works in my favor (since historically, I get called in to cover much more often than I call in sick myself).
Can I recover in the next 40 hours enough to toe the line? Or if I start, will I be recovered enough from this illness and resulting involuntary fasting (depleting my glycogen and already meager fat stores) to finish?
How I'm putting my chances right now:
chance of starting: 50%
chance of finishing if I make it to the start: 50%
chance of finishing under 30 hours if I finish: 50% (my original goal time was around 25 hours)
live webcast -- if I'm in it, I'm number 135 (but you can just type in "Tanaka")
I remain hopeful, but won't delude myself. Writing this short blurb has wiped me out, and still gotta finish packing....
5 comments:
Mark - since this course will make you suffer one way or another, you may as well have a nice trip to Hawaii and take in as much of the race as you can handle. The bamboo grove is truly sublime. Granted, recovering from a major HURL-fest (sorry, pun for the wrong race ;-) in 40 hrs-ish before the race start could be a challenge that leaves you totally wiped....or you may find yourself refreshed and strong.
If nothing else, the race has the graceful exit option at 100k, so it wouldn't be a DNF if you stopped then. At least that's what I keep telling myself about my own 100k "finish" there :-(
Have a fun trip regardless!
Good luck! Hope you get to feeling better. : (
Thanks, you both. I DO feel better than 20 hours ago; maybe I'm 1/3 recovered? We'll see. I much appreciate both your positive vibes; every little boost helps!
Congrats on finishing HURT while obviously still under the weather. Thanks for putting out all those race reports. I'm amazed at your memory!
Cynthia
Thanks, Cynthia! I guess "under the weather" is one way to put it...
I usually write at least half of the reports in the week or two after each race. Besides my life, what delays finishing them is cleaning them up and other time-consuming tasks such as uploading photos (the process for which blogger has at least improved somewhat).
Post a Comment