DNS

I was hoping to write a nifty race report of my Olympic test at Longleaf today, but this cold has got the best of me, and instead I have my first "Did not Start". I'm not sure what would be worse, a DNF or a DNS. At least in a DNF you gave it a shot, and for one reason or another, usually a darn good one, you had to drop out of the race. Me, I just got sick.


I was ready to go, too. Bike was clean and mounted in the truck. Race gear in the bag; I was carbo-loaded like all good Clydesdales do, but feeling the beginning of the sniffles and congestion that usually mean my annual cold is coming on, I went to bed last night just hoping that the Vitamin C and Echinacea (that's what the plant looks like to the left) would be enough to kick it out of me. It wasn't.

And that's the real cruddy part - man, I was ready to go and looking forward to this race! A small tri with only about 150 competitors, just 45 minutes from my house, an 8am gun and a nifty time-trial swim start made this, for me, a must-do event. It was, however, a "C" race - I did not taper, save for a day off on Saturday for a Sunday race - it was going to be essentially a big brick. My end of season "A" race has only 2 more "big" weeks of training left, then a 2 week taper for my first 1/2 Iron-distance race - Miami-Man - on November 12th. Stretching and warming up this morning, I had to tell myself to keep my eye on the prize - and do what you can to kick this cold quickly in order to put in some quality training in the upcoming weeks. This race would have undoubtedly lenthened my recovery, and I keep telling myself that, but I sure do feel like I missed out today.


To reward my exceptional decision making, and since we were already up, a trip to IHOP was in order where a large class of cold-fighting orange juice, and other things which just helped to cheer me up, were waiting for me. I was back in bed before the first racer toed the swim start line - and with any luck, I'll be hitting it hard again tomorrow with a nice little morning run and a lunch swim. Wish me luck!