6 days to go, and I am sick, what shall I do?

Too late to cancel?

Sounds like you could be set up for an awful time.

Get the rest. Try to get better by getting anitbiotics, and if you do, go for a run. If you feel strong and good, then go for it. If not...

runcool wrote:

Too late to cancel?

Sounds like you could be set up for an awful time.

Get the rest. Try to get better by getting anitbiotics, and if you do, go for a run. If you feel strong and good, then go for it. If not...

Terrible advise. If it's that serious that you have to take antibiotics, don't run. More importantly, if fever, don't run. Can damage heart. If you feel good by Friday, race Sunday.

Don't worry about not getting your runs in. There are no quality runs in there anyway.

shamelessly pumping my thread to get more suggestions :-)

take one more day off..no running load on Vitamin C and orange juice. run tuesday wed medium run thursday hard easy fri and sat. you have to get your legs going a bit before you run but i think one more day off and you'll be OK

If you run, just run easy and short. Nothing you do now is going to impact your race in any way. You are just keeping your legs loose and keeping your mind straight with the easy runs.

Just make sure to take in plenty of fluids and electrolytes this week. If you are still sick on race day, probably not a good idea to run (as tough as that might be). If you feel OK, go out conservatively and pick up the pace after the first 10k if you are feeling good.

I'm actually going to disagree with those who say take it easy and don't run between now and the race. When I'm sick for a few days to a week, I usually find that it takes about three days to build back to where I was. So if I'm you, take off until you feel like you can run with only moderate discomfort. If that's after Wednesday, then bag on the race -- a marathon is much too far to feel like crap from the get go.

If it's Wednesday or before, do three runs before the race. The first should be short and easy. You're going to feel like crap, so don't be surprised. The second should be a little longer and faster -- maybe 10k, a little slower than MP. The last should be shorter but with a good portion at MP. If you can do all of these before Saturday, so much the better -- then just do 20 minutes of so to stretch out your legs then. You don't need to worry about taking days off prior to the race because you've already done that.

+1

I would agree with this post. I think he makes sense. Take off today and tomorrow, and then start this plan. Not too far off of what you planned to do, and you will get a good feel for what you need to do.

Are you going to have to travel far? I cannot believe that sitting in a germ tube is going to help your situation...

thanks a lot you all!

I am travelling on friday, leaving at 4:15 pm and arriving in Berlin at around 10 pm (3 connection flights), so I dont think it is a good to run on Friday. So considering that, here is my plan for the rest of the week.

I feel a bit better today, and if it continues this way, I will try to run a slow 5K or so on tuesday. If that goes OK, thursday I will do a 10K, with the last few kms near marathon pace. Then on saturday, I will jog for about 30 min.

If I don't feel fresh enough to run on tuesday, I will do the slow 5K on wednesday, 5-10K, a bit faster on thursday, and the jogging on saturday.

If I don't feel fresh enough to run on thursday, I will still go to Berlin, but just to support the healthy runners, and maybe witness Gebreselassie break the WR :-)....

went for a slow 5K run today... it went great...actually I feel much better after the run :-)...will rest on wednesday, will go for a bit faster 10k on thrusday (maybe last 3Ks at marathon pace if I feel fresh enough)... really happy now:-):-):-)

If you're only going to run twice between Wednesday and Sunday, I'd probably do most of the 10k at MP -- maybe 2k wu, 6k race pace, 2k cd.

Better yet, do the 10k on Wednesday (again, you've had enough off days in the prior week that it shouldn't be a problem) a bit slower than MP (but harder than easy), a 5k or so at MP on Thursday, take off Friday, and do 30 minutes easy on Saturday.

Drink WATER! Seriously. Water is a life-saver in recovering from sickness.

Concur on the message about not running at all if you have *any* fever.

well, it went pretty bad on race day. In the morning, I didnt feel so good but I thought it was because I eat more than I should, but convinced myself that still two hours before the start and it will turn out OK. When I started warming up around the 8:20, I was still uncomfortable, but after 15 minutes of warm up, I felt a bit better (but there was a lot of gas...)....first 5K, I took it 45 seconds slower than my goal pace (22, instead of 21:45), second 5K, I speeded up a bit (around 21:20), and third 5K was right on target, but I started feeling nauseous and just 100m or so before the half marathon mark, I threw up...

I rested a couple of minutes and continued until the 27km mark, but the time was getting slower and slower, and I was not feeling any better, so I decided to quit. My first DNF...

Yeh, I understand. I DNF'd myself in an event a couple of weeks ago. I think I probably had H1N1. I started the race but recognized early on that I was wasting my time and potentially making myself more ill. Good call on your DNF - there will be more races. Maybe re-group and run a December marathon?