Massive race in 2 days, but I am sick. Can I still PR?

Can you? I’ve seen it happen, but the likelihood of a PR might be more related to your current level of fitness relative to your PR (i.e., you’ve seemed to improve quite a bit lately).

Will you? After illness, you know you’re not likely to perform as well as if you hadn’t been sick this week. But if you haven’t been really sick and you improve over the next two days, you could get close.

What can you do? Outside of sleep a lot, eat right, hydrate, and try to do some sharpening for the race without overdoing it, I can’t think of anything,

I know it's a hard pill to swallow but if you're asking us, it's because you have reasonable doubt.

Just asking because I have a meet on Saturday, too:

Is it by chance a private schools invite at Georgetown Prep? It's not very big, but is the last chance to qualify for states where I live, so I just wondered.

What are you racing?

well let's consider this. why do you feel weak when you are sick? it's because all your energy is being used to make white blood cells to fight the infection. once the body is no longer using so many resources to combat the illness, you should feel stronger and almost back to normal, maybe within 24 hours. there might still be symptoms after that like a cough or runny nose but they won't affect running performance.

during the period of sickness you would presumably be tapering anyway, so what's the difference.

a very long illness is a different prospect because you'd certainly lose aerobic fitness. but if we're just talking 3-4 days, it shouldn't be a problem.

I found that when I raced when I was sick or had just gotten over being sick either there was either no problem at all and I was fine or there was a huge problem and I was destroyed. It could go either way for you. Good luck.

Im in Ohio racing at the Ohio Spire Preview meet. Im in the 1600.

Stop focusing on PR and race the competition.

If anything the 'freshening' may let you run very well.

I ran well for 3k-8k with one hard workout 4-5 days before and then the rest jogging

Ah. Nevermind then!

The 1600 is interesting. Just long enough that if you're dealing with sinus problems you will have a terrible runny nose by the 800. I would know.

I only remember racing sick once, first meet of the indoor season and it was a 4s pb or thereabouts. I dropped 7 seconds the next week. My coach told us a story about how he went to a race super super sick and one of his teammates asked if he was gonna race, and it took him back because he was still planning on breaking 9 in the 2 mile that day (this was back when like 10 HSers had done it). He didn't break 9 that day (or in HS), but I think he still won.

idk I think if you're a bit sick and definitely in the shape of your life, you can hit a pb, or at least close to it. It'll take more time to recover though, and there's a chance you get 1 lap in and you're dying. I say go for it tho

Didn’t Galen Rupp run 8:07 indoors after being sick then ran a 5x mile workout with a 4:01 last rep?!

I seem to remember some significant indoor race effort where he said he was on antibiotics and slept for 14 hours to try and beat the sickness before his race.

Depends. Are you running 50m or a marathon?

If your symptoms are mild and improving, you might still be good to race

do what you want but its very likely you'll have a sh1t run and be screwed for the next week

Stronger? Back to normal within 24 hours? No way.

Then no. I've seen sprinters, jumpers, and throwers PR after being sick, but not distance or mid-d guys.

Do you take nandrolone?

1 - Listen to Sniff ‘n’ the Tears
2 - Pick up your feet

Maybe yes, maybe no. IME there are some days where you can pull out a really good race despite feeling like absolute ass, other times your body just isn’t having it.

Best bet is to be super conservative and/or take some extra time off leading in the days leading up to it- anything you do sick will take more out of you than you than usual, so save as much energy as possible. (Easy exercise can boost the immune system if it’s a relatively minor illness, so some very easy/short jogs or even a bit of walking can be good in that case, but if you’re really tanked I’d just rest.) You’ll probably feel a bit rusty so do a short shakeout the day before, and then just race as well as you can on the day and don’t worry too much about the outcome.

Also be prepared for a longer recovery than normal- I’ve run a couple of surprising PRs while sick, but I was absolutely tanked for a few days after lol.