The irreversibility of time is hard enough to handle without fighting through a wall of snot or fever to get to the finish line

The Lake County Half-Marathon was a one-way ride of sorts. The start and finish were exactly 13.1 miles apart. Then the marathoners kept going, further down the Lake Michigan shore to the finish another 13.1 miles away. A linear race like that has a strange sort of feel, like the existential concept of the irreversibility of time. That meant once you started, unlike many loop courses, there was no turning back. Pulling over or jumping in a car at 6.2 miles and calling it a day was not an option. That meant the feeling of destiny and inevitable suffering was large and oh-so present at the starting line. It did not abate the further you went along.

The Cold Blues

It had been a long week leading up to the race, trying to get over the effects of a deep, difficult cold that was still clogging my nose and throat. But the commitment to run the race was part of a contract with the running store that sponsored our racing team.

I stood there at the starting line kind of cold and achey feeling, wishing there were some way to avoid running 13.1 miles when I felt like crap. I didn’t even jump around to stay loose, wanting to save every step of energy for the race ahead. Then the gun went off, and the crowd surged around me, and competitive instincts kicked in. I saw my closest road racing rival in the group ahead, and another guy who liked to beat me right off my other shoulder. Hell is other people. In the words of Jean-Paul Sartre, there was No Exit.

Long suffering road

I don’t know which took more energy, running the race or wiping my nose with my wrists. Everything was chapped and sore. I thought I heard my brain squish when I sniffed back a roar of snot at one point. It was probably just my sinuses compressing into a giant snot ball, but you know the feeling if you’ve ever accidentally sniffed too hard with a cold.

Still, though the race felt like a chore, I ran decently, finishing in the high 1:10s and placing in the Top 10. I’d even bested that close rival, chasing him down in the last 2 miles. I blew a big wad of farmer snot as I struggled by, and he blew a farmer snot salute in return. We both laughed because we both felt like crap, it turned out.

Uncommon colds

There have been many other days of training and racing when the common cold came along for the ride. You know the drill if you’ve been running or riding for very long. That runny nose is your worst enemy. Coughing, hacking up phlegm. You wonder why you do it sometimes.

I had a bad habit for pushing way past the point where it made any sense to train at all. At one point a chronic cold brought on a series of migraines so severe it felt like the top of my head was on fire, and about to come off. Between sieges of pain, I got to the doctor’s office and they prescribed Tylenol with codeine. The medicine made my arm turn numb.

But I still went out and ran that day.

Uncommon sense

I’ve learn my lesson at last. Sometimes it really doesn’t make sense to push through a cold when training or racing. Still, we sometimes try to fool ourselves.

I recall one summer cold that might have been combined with a grass allergy that had me so miserable feeling I didn’t even want to walk across the room, much less compete in a 10k race that weekend.

Yet my brother was in town for a visit and wanted to see me race during a particularly productive year so I went to the starting line anyway. The gun went off and it was like time was standing still. My normal race pace of 5:00 per mile was impossible. Literally. At the mile mark I ground to a halt like a World War II tank with broken treads. Walking back to the finish, I cried a little, then picked up my gear and went home. “Sorry,” I told my brother, “I’m just too sick.”

“I don’t know why you even started,” he told me. “That was stupid.”

Taking precautions

Trying to avoid getting sick is much easier than fighting colds or flu. When a cold is coming on, Cold Eaze and other zinc products work pretty well. You can often tell when you’re getting sick with a common cold by a few simple rules.

• Are you exceedingly thirsty?
• Do you crave sweets?
• Is your throat dry, scratchy or sore? Nose tingly?
• Is your heart rate elevated?
• Is your temperature up a degree (or two?)
• Sneezing is often a sign of your body’s first response to the cold virus.

Get a clue. You’ve got the flu. 

The flu can make you feel like some sort of sick little fish crawling in your own slop.

And of course, you know when you’ve got the flu because you’re throwing up or crapping your way through the day. No subtlety there.

In fact nothing stops the flu, it seems, except prodigious caution, getting a flu shot and trying not to breathe when other people you encounter are sick.

Immunity, or not?

Runners and cyclists at times may have more immunity than others when it comes to fighting off colds or flu. But many times were are worse off because we are worn down or tired from training. Then our precious fitness hangs in the lurch. When a cold slows you down or a flu takes you out, it is often better to write off a week of hard training and accept that 10 years from now you won’t know that you missed 5 days of training.

Germophobes

During one church service I sat next to a noted germophobe who waved her hand like a fan as the group of kids in front of us gathered for the children’s message with the pastor. The kids were coughing and hacking. You could almost feel the flu bugs and cold viruses flying through the air. I thought my friend would expire from discomfort around such gross expectorations.

The flu is unforgiving. It’s simply stupid to go out and run when you’re throwing up, have a fever or are dehydrated. There is nothing to gain from training through the flu. Nothing. Sure, if you’ve got some streak of consecutive days of training that you don’t want to break, you might go out and wade through a fog to get some miles in, but to what sacrifice? If you’re running a temperature, your body is already under acute stress. Training won’t help you get better.

Cautious returns

Occasionally toward the end of a cold it can help to go out and raise your body temp a bit, to exercise the lungs and help you clear out leftover congestion. Really, it’s rather fun in a gross sort of way, running or riding along as you spit chunks of green stuff into the ditch. Talk about catharsis!

Riding with someone whose sick is just plain gross, no doubt about it. Riders blowing snot in front of you are a certain threat. You don’t even want to stay in their draft. Then your worst worry isn’t tarsnakes on the road, it’s snotsnakes in the air.

So be kind to yourself and others this cold and flu season. Take a break if you’re sick. Cut yourself and your training partners some slack. Drink some hot tea with lemon, curl up in bed and take your medicine if you choose. Running and riding through a cold or flu is just snot that necessary.