Self-Defense

I have back-to-back races the next two weekends. First, an infamously wet and muddy 10K trail race. Then a New Hampshire half marathon. As always seems to happen in the days leading up to a race, I have came down with a mysterious bug this week. Could it be Covid? Nah, the Binox lollipop test says negative. And this morning I am already feeling better.

I think this minor illness reflex is my body’s weird self-defensive way of tapering. Because from past experience it knows I otherwise tend to do dumb things that sabotage my upcoming weekend-warrior effort. Run a frisky 10-mile “shakeout” the day before the NYC Marathon? Been there, done that. Carbo-load with two or three Saturday night beers before an early Sunday morning start? Duh, obviously. The bigger the event, the dumber my pre-event behavior has been. I don’t know why. I suppose a good therapist could help me unpack this self-sabotage. But in the meantime, luckily, my body is already wise to my brain’s B.S.