April 11, 2009

Taper Madness x 1,000

I am sick. Yep, sinus & ear infection. I haven't been feeling myself for the past few days. I finally decided to visit the doctor when I woke up Friday morning with a fever. Due to drug allergies, I am very limited on the antibiotics I can take. I ended up with the controversial drug, Cipro. The first listed side effect of this drug is tendon swelling, not exactly ideal for someone who's running a marathon in 9 days. I talked with her about my concerns and she basically told me that the only antibiotics she could give me were in that family. She told me the tendon risks are small and if I felt anything in the tendons, I should stop the meds immediately.

Today, I did a lot of driving due to errands and what-not. During my alone time I got a chance to really reflect on this training cycle. This entire period in my life has been one big obstacle, why would this week be any different? I didn't actually expect to get through taper incident free. I know I'm taking a risk w/ the meds, and I know it is likely I won't be 100% on race day. Last night I was literally sobbing thinking, why me, blah, blah, blah, poor me. This morning, as I was driving, I thought about something one of my best friends told me back at Christmas. We were discussing my life's problems and some things that had happened to me. She said, "This obstacle is your marathon, not the 26.2." She is so right. The entire time period from Christmas to now has been like a marathon, with the finish being the toughest. I've decided to view next Sunday that way, too. I might have odds against me; I might not be 100%, but I will finish. Hopefully it will symbolize finishes in other areas, too. I'll save that for the RR, though. Say a prayer for me tonight, friends, if you don't mind. My own prayer for the past 4 months has been the same, to stay strong.

5 comments:

  1. Hey make sure you keep a lot of liquids in you. I was reading up on some of the drugs you mentioned on RWOL. Well dehydration is a side effect with some antibiotics. You will finish strong, maybe no PR but strong. Also you can run another one of these things in the fall, it is not like this is your last one. If it were me I would look at CIM or Huntsville. A year from now you will laugh about this when you are shooting for that 2:50 or Trials time!

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  2. Hang in there, tough girl. Think about it this way...you probably would've been running too hard this week anyway. Take advantage of the rest, you'll still have a great race.

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  3. Best to get rid of the infection and nip it in the bud that have it linger for race day. Maybe do some relaxation exercises this week, visualization stuff, too...it helps! You're going to come out of this shining and ready to roll, speedy girl.

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  4. I hope you are feeling better--hang in there!

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  5. Hope you're resting up and taking it as easy as you can right now! You're trained and ready with every reason in the world to expect a good race, and I bet you'll have beaten that bug out of your system by race day. Sending lots of healthy vibes your way....

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