Race Week: The Road to Tobacco Road

This weekend will be my first Half Marathon of the year, the Tobacco Road Half. And, if you are interested in running it as well, let me go ahead and give you the link and info right off the bat because you are not going to want to even wait long enough to finish this blog, seriously, REGISTER NOW as last I heard, there were only 25 spots left open.

Register at http://www.tobaccoroadmarathon.com/participate/fees-registration and use code “bibrave1” to save $20 on race registration!

There, now that's taken care of, let me tell you a bit about my goals for the Tobacco Road Half. If you had asked me a week ago, I would have said my goal was to run a new Half PR. I've never run Tobacco Road before and hear that it is a wonderfully flat course with parts of it on soft surfaces and is great for hitting PRs. I've been training really steady for it and was in a great place for this race. First glance at the weather 10 days out was looking like perfect conditions. Everything was coming up ME! 

I'm coming for you awesome medal!

Then Saturday morning I woke up unable to breathe out of my nose and with the worst sore throat. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I ended up taking the weekend off from training to rest, skipping my last long run (9 miles) and figuring that since it was a taper week anyway, I could still pull this off.

PR Bell, I could still ring you!

And that is where I am now. Hoping to purge myself of this blasted cold quick enough to have a good showing. Either way, I am still looking forward to a great race. I am still holding on to the possibility of being able to ring the PR bell at the finish, but both my health and the weather forecast since are not being quite as promising as previous to this weekend. 

Either way, I am trying to look on the bright side and planning to have a fantastic race. So far everything I have seen about Tobacco Road looks amazing. First of all, when you sign up for the race, you have access to a training plan that is posted on their website. This was super helpful in planning out my long run schedule. Also, they have been steadily sending out communications both about the status of the race and some really amazing stories about some of the athletes who will be at the races and some of the challenges they are overcoming to run Tobacco Road. Check some of these stories out here: http://www.tobaccoroadmarathon.com/news-press 

I almost don't look like I'm dying

I did head out for a short 3 mile run last night where I pulled things way back as far as speed and I did hit Burn Boot Camp this morning. I'm trying to convince myself that I am not really sick. Luckily, it is mainly just a head cold which, while annoying, isn't terrible. The trick is getting enough sleep with a plugged nose waking me all night long, but as the week progresses, hopefully that will improve. The other concern is that the weather has take a bit of a turn to the worse with the temperature dropping a degree or 2 every time I check it, but luckily it looks like no rain, so there's that. Trust me, I am so OVER racing in the rain. 

I will be travelling a bit for Tobacco Road which is always fun, even more so this time since I am bringing the family along. Cary, NC is about a 3 hour drive for, so packing up the family early Sat morning and going to try to hit something fun in the Raleigh area for the afternoon. I am staying at the host hotel so it will be quick and easy to attend the expo on Saturday and sprung the extra $10 for the parking pass for the race so I have a bit more wiggle room and a bit less stress on race day. 

So that's where we are. T-minus 5 days to race day and slowly overcoming a head cold while obsessively watching the weather. But, I'm still going to enjoy it!! 

Do you have any tips for getting rid of a head cold quickly? Maybe you have an awesome rain dance just to make sure that this one is a dry race for me? Share in the comments below!