In Sickness and In Half Marathon

I, Conejo Joe, take you, Marathon, to be my dreaded life. Two hamstrings and too old, from this day forward, in sickness and in half marathon, to run and to cherish 'till death do us part.

All right, enough self pity.  This past Sunday I was signed up for the Valley Crest Half Marathon in the San Fernando Valley.  My goal was simply to run the course as a training run, nothing fancy.  My previous longest run to date in training for December's Inaugural Santa Barbara Marathon was 10.5 miles on May 30th, so this would have been a nice bump up to 13.1 miles.

I didn't run a step on Sunday.

Somehow I came down with a nasty sore throat starting late Saturday night.  The race started at 8 a.m. and I woke up at 5:45 a.m., but I couldn't drag myself out of bed.  So I did my body a favor and stayed home.

Life happens.  I don't get enough sleep.  I ramp up my training.  And I have kids that attend 3 different schools...and bring home all sorts of germs.  I eat out all the time.  I visit events all over Ventura County.  I work hard, play hard.  So I get sick.  No biggie.

Today I feel a lot better and ran 40 minutes this morning, though still slower than normal.  I get sick too often and must follow my own advice...wash my hands frequently, get more sleep, stop burning myself out.

The good thing is that I was forced into 2 rest days in a row, and I'm sure by the weekend I'll be feeling groovy!  So for Father's Day weekend I fully intend to make up for last week's mediocre training with a 13 miler.  Last week's mileage was 30, significantly less than prior weeks...1 step back, but 2 steps forward!