Countdown

Week 12: Monday April 14, 2015 - One week to Boston (0 km) 

I have a week in Boston before the race. I hope to get out for a few little runs as I've only had 12 weeks of running preparation since coming back from the foot stress fracture.  Not a huge volume of training in terms of mileage. I have focused more on interval training with longer slow run/walks in preparation for Coastrek and the Six Foot Track earlier  in March. Will see what happens come Monday.  

I arrived in Boston on Tuesday night and on Wednesday I spent the day out at Concord walking in the woods surrounding Walden Pond where David Thoreau wrote his famous work "Walden_A Life in the Woods".The next morning, Thursday I woke up with a raging sore throat and blocked nose.  Don't panic I thought, its only Thursday, plenty of time to get over it.   As it was,  the  cold did get worse. On Friday night the bones in my head hurt so much I had to take painkillers in the middle of the night.  Thoughts of.... it will be impossible to run on Monday with this cold.... were churning in my head, along with the pain. I tried not to dwell too much on that, just one day at a time. Got some anti-inflammatory medication to try and reduce the pressure off my sinuses. This seem to settle it during the daytime.

Googling symptoms seem to suggest that it was OK to run with a cold,  if it is not in your  chest. That was enough for me. Now if only race day could arrive before the cold makes it south to my lungs.  Less than ideal but what can I do?

In total,  a zero running week with a fair bit of walking around town.  By race registration I really did feel like an imposter. I have hardly run at all in the last two weeks and here I am about to run a marathon with a head cold. So in effect my total training for this marathon has been about 10 weeks. Not really enough to fill you with confidence.