Running a half marathon Sunday but sick now?

Hello,

I wouldn't worry to much about it. If you have a cold you have a cold and can't do anything about it. I would not run at all this week, just get as much rest as possible, and turn up and run on Sunday. Just do what you can. If you have been training for months and you have already run the distance you should not have any problems from that point of view, so your main concern is to manage your illness so it has as little effect as possible on the way you feel.

Missing a long run in training for the Half is the last thing you want to do. It would be better to miss two of the weekday runs. But since you can't change that now, the best thing you can do is change your race strategy. Your new strategy is to cross the finish line, standing upright, with a smile on your face and wanting to do it again. That means starting out slower than you know you can go. You will have a tendency to speed up as you get warmed up, but control the urge and run the same pace that you ran for the 9 miler, or maybe even 20 seconds per mile slower. I have run several half marathons with a long run of 10 miles. You just have to accept that you have to go a little slower than you had planned. Running is supposed to be fun. Go to the start line with that attitude and it won't matter what your time is.

Your mileage this week should be greatly reduced anyway - the week of the race you aren't supposed to be training, you're supposed to be recovering and preparing. You won't make any training gains this week, the time for real training is over.

Get extra rest. Get in bed earlier all week. Try to do a few short runs leading up to the race, but nothing too exhaustive or long. Ideally, your short runs this week would be done at your planned race pace, so that you can keep your body accustomed to it. A couple of days completely off won't harm your fitness levels, but it is usually good to do a little running in the days before a race so you don't feel heavy or stiff on race day.

Sunday is a long way off in terms of what your body can do. There is no reason to make a decision about the race now, wait until Saturday, see how you are doing fighting off the cold.

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Have one of these!!