Getting sick just before a goal race. What would you do?

Pisco Sour

Came down with something nasty a few days ago. Really shouldn't have ran yesterday but with it being my last race for over 6 months, and not wanting the last few weeks of tough training to be for nothing, I battled through and ran a sub par time.

It got me thinking about marathon runners. It's not a distance you can do properly every second week. You've targeted Chicago, Berlin or whereever. Have done the training, booked your flights, hotels, perhaps even made the journey out, and then a few days beforehand get sick and feel awful. What do you do? Battle through it? Chalk it down to bad luck and pull out? Have a plan B marathon for 3 weeks down the line just in case?

I was frustrated to get sick just before what could have been a PB assault. I can only imagine the pure frustration that marathon runners must feel at something like this happening. Be interesting to hear people's stories.

RacoonQueen

Run it and hope for the best and then bitch and moan about it for the next three years

Nowadays you can always have a plan B, Ireland is awash with marathons now, you don't need to suffer through a foreign marathon you've trained your backside off for just to get the reward for your training now.

Getting sick before Barcelona 2010 still hangs over me, 3 years later I'm only starting to match my pre-Barca training and form now (only faster). Obviously most people aren't going to have the same reasons for taking 3 years to get back to form but missing a serious pb attempt is always going to sting. Where marathons come in, giving how much it takes out of you when fully healthy anyone who runs one when still ill is a mongo.

webpal

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Run it and hope for the best and then bitch and moan about it for the next three years

+1 happened to me New York 2010, took a long time to get back into it as a result but have come back stronger, still miffed though.

RayCun

illness, minor injury, heatwave... these are the fears taper madness is made of

notsofast

RacoonQueen wrote: »

anyone who runs one when still ill is a mongo.

Slightly off topic, what's a mongo? I googled it and assume its not all day event at a nightclub?

event

its a derogatory term, but I doubt RG meant any offence

RacoonQueen

notsofast wrote: »

Slightly off topic, what's a mongo? I googled it and assume its not all day event at a nightclub?

An idiot.

http://www.slang.ie/index.php?county=Dublin&entry=mongo

robinph

I think in most cases I'd just struggle on through and do the marathon anyway. But after being unable to get out of bed for most of the week before Amsterdam marathon a few years ago a moment of sanity came over me and I decided to drop out of the marathon and just go over and drink beer for the weekend instead.

Signed up for another marathon as soon as I got back which was a month later and did one of my better performances, although not fastest due to the nature of the course.

Clearlier

notsofast wrote: »

Slightly off topic, what's a mongo? I googled it and assume its not all day event at a nightclub?

I think that's it short for 'mongol' which is what they used to call people who had Down's syndrome.

I might run a race to complete a team but I value my health too much to push myself to the edge if I'm not well.

menoscemo

notsofast wrote: »

Slightly off topic, what's a mongo? I googled it and assume its not all day event at a nightclub?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ciVBQixpU

RacoonQueen

When you've trained specifically for one race, worked your backside off for months and everything else you done or raced in the run up has all been about hitting the target in this particular race - you want reward for your training. Not running is usually not an option in the mind of an athlete.

EauRouge79

In terms of a marathon, especially one ""out foreign" I would still make the trip your probably caught for flights and accomodation anyway.
Would probably still run for the experience if it was a mild illness but obviously not at full tilt.

I sat one out in Prague a couple of years ago due to a leg injury, as it happened it was about 30 degress at Midday so I was quite happy to be sitting by the riverside having a beer as the masses passed by.

opus

Guess it would depend on how bad I felt really & how much the race meant. Caught some sort of cold the week before the Donadea 50k earlier in the year & was in two minds as to whether or not to even start. In the end I did but it caught up with me in the last 10k when I started losing the ability to breath (admittedly this could be lack of fitness as well )

Think doing the race set back recovery a bit as I still had the damned thing in Ballycotton two weeks later.