This headline is misleading. I would venture that most days I do not feel like running 10 miles. Most days I follow that urge! But Sunday was a tougher decision. I was registered to run the Broad Street 10-miler through Philadelphia. I have run the race twice before, and my times have been bad. In my defense: the first time I was 20 weeks pregnant. The second time I was about 14 weeks postpartum (different kid) — not fully trained, in other words.
This would be the year I redeemed myself. I had run 10 miles at less than 10 min/mile with Jane 2 weeks ago, so it was quite possible I could have gotten a sub 1:40 time. Originally, my husband and I were going to run together.
But then his mom (our childcare) was needed elsewhere, so just I was going to run. Then we looked at the weather.
Ugh — 48 degrees and 100 percent chance of rain. I am OK with running in a drizzle, especially if it is 60 degrees or so. I might have been OK running in driving rain at 48 degrees if the race started from my house and looped back around so I would have been out in the elements for less than 2 hours. But like all major urban races, Broad Street involves lots of logistics of getting to the starting line, waiting in corrals to start, and wending your way back home after. I would likely have been out in the cold rain for 4 hours.
So, nope. It was a pretty calm morning instead. My husband took the first shift so I slept until 7:15. Then I played with the baby for an hour, reading books and chatting about choo-choos, woofs, and balls (much of the universe is divided into these object categories). Given that walking from my car to church in the rain was pretty miserable, I was glad I was not out on the course.
I have more races coming up this year, so I am willing to let this one slide. Some days I do not feel like running 10 miles, and some days it is OK to follow that feeling.
Greetings from a fellow dropout! I pulled out of this morning’s Pittsburgh half because I was having a hard time kicking the flu. Now that I know how rainy and cold it would have been, I’m sure it was the right call. But it was hard to walk away after months of training, and with friends running. Thanks for helping me feel better about choosing to take it easy and focus on recovery. Selena K., Chicago.
Selena, That absolutely sounds like the right call to make. I hope you can find another half to run in since you have worked so hard to train. It would be a shame to try and run while sick, you could have made yourself worse. I wish you a speedy recovery, and a great future 1/2 marathon!
@Selena – sounds like the right call. This is one reason I sign up for a number of races during the year. I know I won’t make all of them, but if I have more races coming up, then skipping any given one isn’t so bad. I view it as buying some extremely expensive race T-shirts 🙂
Good call IMO! I talked to some people who did run it, and said it wasn’t THAT bad during the race, but then it was POURING afterwards and they still had to be outside for over an hour afterwards. I ran the race twice, and decided the logistics were really too terrible for me to ever want to do it again.
@Ana – last year we got stuck in a 2-hour traffic jam getting out of the Wells Fargo Center parking lot. Yep, the logistics are a nightmare. I am looking forward to Oddyssey half in June because it is a smallish race so you can park close by and get out of there easy.
I’ll have to look into that one. I’m hoping to do a half next year, and would love something small/low-key! (and june is pretty much as good as you can get, weather-wise)
Smart move! I was downtown late morning and saw the very wet, miserable looking stragglers make their way back home. Sometimes you just have to say no!!