Cowboy Hazel

This just hasn't been my summer. Just as I thought I was pulling out of my running slump, a nasty flu bug knocked me on my ass. Last Sunday, Helen and I were planning to run twenty miles or so, my last longish run before the 100. It never happened. I just wasn't feeling it and never got out the door to run at all. Then, Sunday night, I started throwing up violently. That continued for 36 hours, accompanied by over 72 hours of diarrhea. I couldn't eat or drink anything Monday and most of Tuesday, let alone go out for a run. I ended up with five days of zeros in a row. And, in the 7 days since, I've only logged a total of 21 miles. They've all been painfully slow and, well, painful miles. I just don't have it.

All this would be concerning no matter when it hit, but the fact that it's happening now (when there's a little under a week-and-a-half before my first 100 miler) is downright frightening. I had my doubts about my ability to run a hundred continuous miles before it became a challenge just to run 2 miles in a row. Now, I really don't know if it's going to be possible.

I'm scared, but still hoping for the best. 10 of the 21 miles run in the past week came yesterday and today. I'm feeling orders of magnitude better than I was last week so, who knows, maybe another week will be all I need to be back to normal? Let's hope.