Posted on October 17, 2014 by Jenny Cromack

So, on Sunday morning I was faced with a decision which I really didn’t want to make…..to run or not to run?!

For those of you who read my Day In The Life of A Personal Trainer Blog you will know that I set myself a target of running the Yorkshire Marathon this year and Sunday was the day when everything was meant to come together and I was going to complete the marathon! That was until I got a stomach bug on Friday which put a huge question mark above whether or not I would actually run :o(

Whilst I had been quite honest with people about whether or not I would achieve my target time of 3:24, I was quite confident I could still complete in around 3:30 which I would have been extremely happy with. So, when I started being sick on Friday I was not a happy bunny!

As most of my personal training clients will know, there isn’t much which stops me from doing what I set out to do, I’m quite a determined person and I also hate letting myself down. So on Saturday, whilst spending the day either asleep on the sofa watching a catch up of EastEnders (yes, I know!!!) I tried to still drink plenty of water so I would be hydrated for the run.  I was keeping food down but I couldn’t eat much and I felt absolutely drained so I was worried I woudn’t have the energy to run, although I had managed to carb load quite well on Thursday, I’d not eaten the right amount of food I needed to get around 26 miles since late afternoon on Friday.

Throughout the day I chatted with my husband, Joel, about what I should do and you could tell he was worried about what would happen to me if I did run. I had run London Marathon a few years before with the start of flu and believe me, I was not a pretty sight when I finished, so I think he had recollections of that happening again. When I started taking Pepto-Bismol I knew things weren’t looking good!

Anyway, still not one to be defeated I decided I would decide whether or not I was running in the morning. I think deep down I knew that it wasn’t a good idea but I wanted to give myself every chance of being able to run. So, at 630am I got up put my running kit on and went for a 10 minute run to see how I felt.

When I got home and was already sweating after running for only 10 minutes it probably was a good sign that things weren’t looking good to make the start line. I sat and procrastinated for another 15 minutes debating the pros and cons of running. For once, rather than listening to my heart (and the hot part of my brain….remember last week’s blog on self-control?!) I actually listened to my head and the sensible part of my brain and decided not to run.

I was gutted as I am not one to shy away from a challenge but in this case I think listening to my body was the sensible thing to do. Sometimes you just have to realise that putting yourself through something like a marathon when you’re ill could make you even more poorly and it’s not worth it…..there’s plenty more marathon’s to be done in the future when I’m 100% fit and can get the time I want.