Monday, April 27, 2009

Smart Idea or Just a Wimp?

Bottom Line Up Front -- Did not run the GW Parkway 10 miler on Sunday.

My overall training this year has been less than ideal and my body was not really ready for a hot 10 mile run. However, I knew I could suffer through it--IF I did everything right the day prior to the run. So Saturday I was up early, eating properly, hydrating and doing the right things to suffer.

Saturday was also a birthday party for the bride. We surprised her by her sister flying in from Chicago and I presented her with a Dell Mini Computer. Both of which were big hits.

Saturday night we had dinner for her at a friend's house and that devolved into more alchohol and more food than I had intented. I also stayed up much later than orginally planned. Dinner was not served until after 9pm (which is late for me--so go ahead and laugh).

I woke up at 5 am to get ready for the race and I felt the red wine hitting me (one glass). I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast and then stick my head outside. It was humid and 70 (Friday mornings run was high 30s). At this point I made the decision to go back to bed and put off the race. With my physical state, the state of my training, and not having run in any hot/humid conditions I decided that I would hurt myself more by attempting this race. About 930 I did get out and ran for 35 minutes. This short run HURT, but I did sweat out the toxins.

So my question is -- Did I wimp out or was this a smart move?

7 comments:

Mel-2nd Chances said...

i say smart idea, you know your body best, and it didn't feel right, you went with it. Plus the heat and humidity did creep up on a lot of people, and can make for some uncomfortable and unsafe conditions. Smart. There are plenty of other races.

Lesser is More said...

It was probably the right thing to do. Its one thing to go into a race undertrained. But undertrained and in dangerous conditions is a disaster waiting to happen. There will always be future races (in hopefully better conditions).

Sara Cox Landolt said...

We were in Minnesota this weekend for the Ironman Bike ride. It was wet, 42degrees and windy. I did 30 and Ken did 50. We should have slept in, the kids were with grandparents, wow, that could have been like 12 hours of sleep....

Rainmaker said...

I'd say you smartly wimped out. ;)

It was pretty brutal out there - I went for a short run around the same timeframe and it was pretty rough. I couldn't have imagined running 10 miles. Ekk.

rocketpants said...

did the right thing. Always another race and you weren't sure if you were up for it under the best of circumstances.

Carly said...

I think it was a smart idea. Running in that kind of heat sucks and can be dangerous. You still got out there and I hardly think that is wimping out.

Trishie said...

smart I think. There will ALWAYS be other races and you avoided a possible injury.