Coughing & 2 weeks to Great South!

I've run the Great South for the last 3 years.  This year, for various reasons, my training  has been a lot slower, but I was on track with my 10k run a month before the race.  Then I went down with a chest infection (on the first day of my holiday, of course...).  On antibiotics, & feeling a lot better, but I still have a bad productive cough, so am still not running a week after first becoming ill.

Assuming I get ANY more training time(!), is it worth attempting to run this year, or do you reckon I should defer to next year & look for another race a bit later in the year?

SO frustrating...!

Comments

  • Hi Anne,  What training have you been doing?  If you were reasonably fit and fairly well on track before your cough then the theory is that you don't lose too much fitness over 2 weeks.  If your cough is very productive that sounds like a good thing as you will be getting rid of the infected stuff hopefully.  There's a lot of similar coughs/colds about just now.  At least Great South doesn't have hills which could be really tough if you are still a bit chesty.  I don't think there would be much point deferring as there isn't any difficulty getting into the race at present.  You would have to pay again next year even if you did.  Just keep 'hoiking' & spitting!  Keep in touch with your progress.  Antibiotics are wonderful things.  Hope to see you there! 
  • Anne, I agree with RLTW.  You can always walk it if you don't feel up to running, but at least you would have taken part and not wasted all your money.

    But please don't run if the cough is still bad on the day.  You will only make yourself worse.

  • Thanks for this.  My job has been very very busy this year so training has not been anywhere near as good as in previous years.  Seems like every time I get going in a regular routine (3x weekly running - 1 long, 2 shorter runs) something happens to derail things image.  Still, I will see what happens with the cough, perhaps I can get at least another couple of runs in if it settles down over the next few days.  This morning still coughing as badly as ever - ribs hurt!

    I'll let you know what happens on 28th...

  • How are you feeling now Anne?  Do you think you will be able to run on Sunday?
  • The cough HAD been improving.  I ran 5 miles on Sunday with no coughing, though I started off again afterwards.  But it wasn't the easiest 5 I've done!

    Coughing most of yesterday.  Still hedging my bets...

  • Fingers crossed for you Anne.  If you do decide to run - just take it steady and, as SuperCaz said earlier, walk when you need to.  You'll still have the satisfaction of collecting  that medal.  Really hope things are ok for you. 
  • You could take a look at this sport medicine paper and see what you think relative to your own condition. It's not too highly technical.
  • So, did you run Anne?  Not the best of weather for someone recovering from a nasty cough.  I got a pb (1:51:15).  I'm not the quickest of the pack!  It was a struggle, specially the last 2 miles along the sea front. Lost some time there battling the wind.

    Nice medal. I prefer the antique bronze ones rather than the pewter effect of last year.

    Better weather next time maybe!

  • Was sick on Saturday morning & cough if anything worse.  So given the weather, & the fact that I'm going to the US on Saturday on business, I decided it would be a bit daft to run, really.  But I spent most of yesterday decorating & clearing out my mum's conservatory, so that I didn't have to think too much about what I wasn't doing...

    The medals ARE nice - my fav is the 2005 one.  Oh well, maybe next year.  I've pre-registered & will see what happens.  But maybe I'll do some different races next year & ring the changes a bit.

    Congratulations on your time.  Those last 2 miles are a real sod when the wind's against you.  Last year at 8 miles as I turned onto the sea front it was the first & only time I've ever been freezing while I've been well into a run!

  • Hi Anne.  Sorry to hear that you weren't well enough to join us.  Probably a sensibly decision though as you say your cough seems a bit worse.  There have been some very strange coughs and colds around this year where they seem to be going away but then turn nasty and come back with a vengeance.  Definitely not the best of conditions to be running in if you were feeling under the weather (excuse the pun!) 

    Highlights are going to be on Channel 5 on Wed night at just past midnight, so set your video.

    They did the Power mile continuous music for mile 8-9 which helped a lot (just wish is was 2 miles of music).  My favourite is always the Samba band which you catch twice.  I could run all day with them booming away.

    I've tried to pre-register for next year but it keeps saying they don't have my email recorded - very strange as they keep sending me emails!

    Hope you feel better soon.  Don't let it get you down - there's loads of other runs specially in the spring.

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