So, as we say... 💩💩💩 happens! In this case literally 😝
A severe does of gastric flu hit John Thursday evening, thankfully not so severe symptoms but unpleasant none the less, along with the resultant sleep loss for me Thursday evening (ironically once he was ‘finished’ he slept like a baby - I lay awake all night fretting!) meant that yesterday we were both wiped.
Went to bed and set my alarm for 2:30 just in case by some miracle I felt better, however I woke at 2 and switched it off at 0215. It’s a tough decision to make but this is a course and a distance that I needed to be 100% for both physically and mentally. Physically I would have been lucky to hit 65% and mentally was all over the place so decision made and a good 4 hours sleep followed. I’m sad to have had to have made this call, this race has been on my want to list for 5 years and up until yesterday I felt I was as close as I was going to get to being ready, I’ve worked hard to get here and was really looking forward to giving it a go. I’d rather be a DNS and be somewhere familiar with John than a DNF miles away and not being able to get back to him for hours.
When we get thrown the curved ball, we either catch it or duck out the way complaining that it’s not fair. I feel I’ve caught it this time, I’m sad that I’m am not out on that stunning course today chasing cutoffs but I’ve a good whack of training in the bank and I’ll find another race to put it to good use (there are already a few lined up for rest of year) so it won’t be wasted. We’ve had a great trip over here which we wouldn’t have had without the race, we’ve been new places and I’ve achieved things I never thought I could and wouldn’t even have attempted a year ago. We’ve caught up with great friends and had a really good and well deserved break together with time to just be together and enjoy each other’s company and share the adventures so it’s definitely not been a wasted trip.
Bonus is we can spend our wedding anniversary together instead of being apart for most of it as it would have been!
