Take that Pneumonia

I've never had pneumonia before so I had no clue how long it lasts. Every other time I've had a cough/cold it would last for a couple days maybe 4 or 5 tops. So when I kept hearing from friends that they've had it last weeks and even a month before needless to say I was a little worried. Only a little because I tend to think of myself in fairly high regards and surely my immune system coupled with the antibiotics would have this thing under control and out of my system within a week. Well we are going on almost two weeks now and there is still a linger of cough. This has not been good to my training. Not good at all seeing as how the wheezing and coughing forced me to take 11 days off! Not cool pneumonia...not cool at all. Being the stubborn person (stupid) I decided I was feeling better enough on Friday that I would try a couple mile run after work and if that went well then I was going to run my first race of the year on Saturday. So work came and went on Friday and on went the running clothes. We have had pretty good weather lately which has been so refreshing. I knocked out 2.5 miles being sure to not over do it. I felt good, no burning of the lungs or anything and only a couple little coughs after it was all over. (by the way if you're sick see your Dr. and let them tell you when you can run again don't take my story as any bit of advice. I'm no professional) I ran a couple of 50 meter sprints after the run to get my legs used to a quicker pace again since they've been dormant for almost two weeks. I stayed in Friday night and watched a movie. Not necessarily because I was resting up and being responsible but more because when I sat down on the couch to kill some time I fell asleep and didn't wake up until 11 o'clock lol. That happens more than you'd guess too. I woke up for my alarm Saturday morning and had slight mental debate on whether running the Shamrock 5k was a good idea or not. Again being stubborn and remembering how bummed I was that I missed the race last year due to the flu I decided it was a good idea. I wasn't going to let illness get the better of me this year! I had originally been planning on shooting for a PR in this race but I knew that was now a long shot and basically out of the question after my interruption in training. I think most people would say that's a good thing because it takes some of the pressure off but I'm stubborn and still was going to push myself to run my best. The weather was decent, a little chill in the air with temps only reaching 34ish at the start of the race so I wore a thin longsleeve base layer and my longsleeve Nike halfzip, shorts and a hat. There was a decent turnout of people decked out in green, almost 600 runners which was good because this is still a fairly new race and I'm pretty sure that's a record high. I recognized a few of the faster guys who always kick my butt in races toeing the front of the line so i lined up a few people back in the pack. The gun went off and I realized that right behind the "local elites" was the always present group of kids who sprint the first 50 meters and then slow down to a crawling pace and have now become running obstacles. After avoiding running over any little ones and a few more minutes I crossed the mile mark at 6:10! I felt good, strong and no problems. I was passing people still and was happy with my pace. About a half mile later I started to notice a little bit of congestion but kept trucking on. I could hear feet behind me and I was determined to not let anyone pass me. At 12:30 I crossed the 2 mile mark and my amazing arithmetic abilities told me that I had slowed down slightly. The negative thoughts were starting to creep in and I kept thinking about the 11 days I hadn't run and wondering if my lungs would hold out. I could see the next runner ahead of me and just kept focusing on not letting him get any smaller in my vision. The course has a few hills and of course the biggest one starts at the 3 mile mark. Fantastic large hill + tired legs + tired congested lungs = pathetic kick finish. Lucky for me the people behind me weren't speedy finishers either and they didn't pick me off. I crossed the finish in 19:39! Hell yes I'll take that! They soon after posted the results and I found out I was second in my age group so I was gettin a medal! Take that pneumonia! Today they posted the full results online and I was surprised to find out that I finished 12th overall out of 579! Needless to say I'm happy with the results of my race and my lungs/body still feels pretty good today so it looks like I can resume training for the marathon. Obviously I'm going to have to modify my plan slightly to make up for the time off. I'm not sure how yet but I'm going to try and find a happy balance of easing back into it and still getting in enough miles to get me ready for the starting line.  There's only 48 days to go! Hope everyone else that ran this weekend had some awesome adventures!

Sweet AG second place medal