So as race day for the Flying Pig approached, I started my usual race-week obsessing: checking weather forecasts, what to wear, what to pack, and trying to figure out all of the other last minute details. I was feeling confident about this race. After having run 2 half marathons this spring, I thought that I was in a good place to run a course PR at the Pig. If I had a great day, maybe even a distance PR.
On Wednesday, as I prepared to turn in for the night, I noticed my heart was racing. It felt like it was going to thump its way right out of my chest and I thought that was odd. I felt fine in every other way, but when I took my heart rate it was well over 70. Uh oh. In the past few years of running, as my resting heart rate dropped into the low 40’s, I had noticed a very consistent trend. Heart rate over 65 = sick within 24 hours. I felt fine though and hoped that it was just a fluke.
Thursday morning: sore throat. An “oh my God, it feels like someone took a belt sander to my throat” sore throat. And a headache. And a very stuffy nose. Perfect. So I tried to drink extra fluids, took my vitamins, and tried to take it easy, although I still went to work. I ditched the Thursday night run so that (a) I could rest and (b) I didn’t expose my friends to my plague. All to no avail, by Friday morning it was worse and I was running a fever. Well, nuts. I’ve planned for this race for a year, I’m not bagging it now. Aaron was running his first half marathon and I was finishing this race unless someone had to pull me from the course. I can be stubborn that way, not necessarily smart, but stubborn. Unfortunately, my boss was in the hospital and I’d already agreed to work in his place. I popped some ibuprofen, warned the ladies at work that I was dragging, and had a hectic workday in spite of my exhaustion. I finally got out of work (only a half hour late), got home, threw a few last minute items in the bag, and we left for Cincinnati.
After we got to the hotel, we unpacked, and decided to take a little walk to get some munchies. The hotel is just a block off of the race route, so I saw a few of these on our trek.
On Saturday morning, we decided to run across the river to go hit the Expo. From our hotel, it's just a quick run over the Roebling Bridge to get downtown. Last year, the bridge was in the midst of being painted and prettied up, so it looks really nice this spring. No more tarps!
Originally, I’d hoped to do 3-4 miles very easy just to loosen the kinks. Since I was battling the head cold, we just ran the 1.3 to the Expo, walked around there for an hour, then walked back to the hotel. That was plenty, just the walking left me tired and I wondered if I’d overdone it. I enjoyed the Expo though, bought a few things from the vendors, talked to someone representing the Geist Half, visited the empty booth for the Carmel Marathon/Half (wish there’d been a rep there, I hear some folks landed tasty registration discounts there!), and got some vitamin/antioxidant samples that I took in hopes that it might help my cold. Oh, and got my picture taken with the Cheetah Pig. I’d spotted a picture of that one online and knew that I needed to find him. Then I hummed the Cheetah Pig song to myself all day. (Think Homer Simpson if you don’t know what song I mean.)
After the Expo, we still had some time to kill before we had to pick up the kids from Sara so we debated what to do. I finally decided that this was a good opportunity to give Aaron a preview of the race route. We had both run the Cincy downtown area enough that we skipped that part and picked up the course in Covington. It was really nice for me even, since I usually just blindly run the race and don't take the time to notice street names and to sightsee. We made it as far as the Eden Park Overlook before we had to cut it short to go meet-up with the family. We stopped at the overlook for a quick photo-op. Every time I run this race, I think I should get a photo there but I never want to stop. Finally, I have my picture! The view from here is gorgeous and I'm glad that I got to get my picture on a clear day.
The weather forecast had been predicting a rainy race for us and that showed no sign of changing. It’s getting to where I almost expect rain for Cincinnati races! Flying Pig 2010, Heart Mini 2011, and now Flying Pig 2011 would all be rainy races. Visors and rain ponchos for the start, we’re prepared. We went to the Reds game in the evening, which made for a late night even though we left in the 6th inning. Good thing that we didn’t stick around for the whole game: it went into extra innings! In fact, I was already half asleep when I heard the “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM” of the fireworks announcing the Reds’ win in the 10th. Next on the agenda: race day.
3 comments:
May I ask where you got those flying pig balloons? I must ask because it's for something important I want to do for someone special to me.
P.S.- Keep running! You can do it!
I didn't get the balloons, they were at the race expo. Each pig was actually made up of multiple balloons.
OH Ok! Thank you anyways!
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