Did not go well

Okay, so I ran a cross country race today. 3.55 miles of ups and downs, sand, dirt, gravel, pavement and grass. The course itself was beautiful and very challenging, overlooking Alcatraz Island and Angel Island in the SF Bay. The horrible part about today was I just did not have it in me to race. It should have been a no brainer for me NOT to race it after being sick and couch ridden for as long as I was, but I'm a moron a lot of the time and I chose to attempt a race today.

After a couple miles of warm up and a few strides I felt okay. Not terrible, not great. Felt fine in the first half mile or so, and then I just felt very tired. The choppy little strides I made on the uphills were pathetic and I probably should have just walked because runners who were walking actually passed me. The first time that happened I laughed to myself and thought, "Unfarcking believable." That's when I knew running today's race was a mistake. I won't bore you with my splits but I will say that I ran the same finish time as I did at the Golden Gate XC race, only THAT course was 4 miles! Definitely slow today. Really slow.

I was coughing quite a bit during the cool down miles, but I feel okay now. The challenge ahead of me is to get over this race quickly and not dwell on it. I have to reassure myself not to feel down about it. A team mate of mine who works closely with nurses was once told, "For every day that you're sidelined with illness you have to give yourself 2-3 days to regain your pre-illness strength." So I was down and out for 10 days... that means it could take me up to 30 days to whip it back into shape. OUCH!!! :(

The lesson I learned today is don't be afraid to take a DNS (did not start) when coming back from sickness. It might make you feel that much fresher for the next race on the schedule, which incidentally is two weeks from now.