Six Tunnels Half Marathon Race Recap

Well… this may be one of the shortest race recaps I ever do. This was my second time running the Six Tunnels course, and my third for this year’s goal of 13. I was excited all week going in to this. The week leading up to it, my husband got sick. I was busy with work, but stuck to my training and well, tried to avoid him and his plague.

Friday after work I picked up my packet (and a second pair of sneaks on clearance). Headed home and prepped my race day supplies, my fueling, other needs, got my water bottle ready, my outfit… I was ready to go. Headed to bed early to get some sleep and rock this half marathon. Then… well, nothing went as planned. I awoke several times throughout the night feeling achy, my throat hurt. I tried to brush it off and get more sleep. When I woke up Saturday morning, my throat was very sore, my body was achy… but, I figured I would head out and give it my best. It was a local race, so it was worth giving it a shot. Then, my breakfast didn’t want to stay down. This made me nervous. I headed out, and determined that if in fact breakfast didn’t stay down, I would go home. But, I would do my best to participate in the half. If needed, I would just walk most of it. Definitely take it easy.

As I was waiting for the race to start, I definitely felt off. I ate my pre-race fuel (thankful again that Honey Stinger products are so gentle on the stomach and stayed down). The race started and the first 3 miles are uphill. Talk about a struggle. The extra energy and breathing to go uphill was not easy, my throat and lungs burned. I walked a lot of those first 3 miles, and was worried this would just be an ugly race. I decided to just do what my body could, walk whenever needed, and do the best I could. If I couldn’t finish, that was okay.

At the first turnaround, the next 3 miles were back the way we came, which gave me some downhills. I remember being able to run more here and gaining some time, but after that, I don’t remember a lot of the race. I ran, I walked, I chatted with 2 different people when I needed distraction to keep going. I didn’t care at all about pace. AT ALL. My lungs hurt, my throat hurt, my body ached… and not from running. I finished in 2:40:42, much slower than my normal pace and my PR on that course. But, I finished. I was handed my medal, grabbed some bottles of water, post-race snacks, and made the ½ mile hike out of the canyon to my car and drove home.

I showered, ate and spent the rest of the day napping. I woke up Sunday with a fever and feeling worse. I finally crawled out of bed Tuesday to go to the doctor and was diagnosed with a severe upper respiratory infection and given some things to alleviate symptoms. My fever finally broke Tuesday. I am on 5 days of rest, no running, no exercising. My lungs sounded bad, but doc says it is not bronchitis, but that the rest would do me some good.

I am sure I could debate whether or not running Saturday was a good idea or not… my doctor is aware and he didn’t yell at me for doing the race. Did I wear my already sick body down, probably. Did I prove to myself that I am just shy of crazy on the commitment to run, definitely. Will I do it again? Not sure, I’d have to say that would be determined at the moment.