Some thoughts while I run

I have a race coming up this weekend that I have been looking forward to for a while. It is a 10K that is billed as being a fast race due to the flatness of the course. So I have been running pretty often, hoping to improve my time by about a minute or more. My plan is to run hills, so that when I run the flat course, my body will think, “hmmm, this is easy…I can go faster.” I have no idea if this will work, or even if this is a good training practice…I probably should read up on that.

Anyway, this week, as I look forward to my race, I caught a cold. I mean what timing. It’s not a bad one, but it does leave me feeling lazy and weak. I’m still planning on running the race and I’m still hoping that I run a personal best, but it does get you thinking.

I wonder about all those athletes who train all their life for an event, say the Olympics and something like this happens to them. They can try as hard as they can, but their body might just be having an off day. I mean I am just some weekend jogger who can enter in another race, but for those professional athletes it all comes down to one day. It just might be a day that they don’t have their “A” game.

Of course if I don’t get a good time, I have my built in excuse, “I did pretty well for having a bad cold.” And I guess I have that in the back of my mind to give me doubt. But it also makes me think of the professional athletes who don’t use that excuse. Can anyone forget the image of Michael Jordan on the sidelines of the NBA finals with a towel over his head ravaged by the flu? He said he was so sick that standing made him nauseous and caused him dizzy spells. He almost past out several times during the game, but still he played because it was the finals. Jordan scored 38 points that night to help the Bulls win the game and eventually the series.

We’ll see how I do this weekend, I’m sure I’ll be saying, “I did pretty well for having a bad cold,” on Saturday night (more like Wednesday when the official results come out). But I’d rather look at my time after the race and not use my built in excuse. After all, Jordan didn’t get his highest point total, but I’ll always remember that game as his best performance ever.