#JellyBean Virtual Run(s) Race Report

I usually am pretty good at blogging about things I plan to do before I do them but this one fell through the cracks. Run with Jess was/is hosting a virtual run series. You can do a 5K, 10K, 1/2 marathon or bike 21K. It ends tomorrow. I signed up when I first heard about it and I committed to all three runs. Thing is, the virtual race series slipped my mind as well until Jess kindly sent me a reminder email. Okay, she sent all participants but you get the point. Mahalo Jess for the reminder!
My mind was so focused on my upcoming road race that the virtual series slipped my mind again. Sorry Jess. And once again, thank you Jess for the reminder email on how to submit our results. That final email gave me the final kick in the butt to do what I committed to.
The thing is, once I received this reminder I was already one race down as I had planned on the Valley to Sea Half Marathon to count for the Jelly Bean series as well. You can read that race report HERE. No use hashing it out again.
And that brings me to the last two days. Time is ticking, ticking, ticking and I still had a 5K and 10K to run. Yes, I had already run a distance of 5K+ this week but to me it seemed wrong to go back and count that as my 5K as I wasn't running it with jelly beans in mind. I establish interesting rules for myself. My goal was to get up and run the 5K yesterday before work but I was up a good portion of the night with darling daughter coughing and my throat hurting due to a nasty cold brewing in both of our heads. Not fun. The virtual runs were on my mind but at 4:15 am in the morning with a painful throat and a coughing child, I could have cared less. That all changed within a couple of hours. I did care. I wanted to run my run.
Fortunately for me, yesterday was a mini day for darling daughter and I got off work early. That gave me plenty of time after work to do all the things I needed to do and wanted to do. After feeding us both lunch, I got on the treadmill determined to run my 5K without a concern in the world about pace. My head was aching and I had a stuffy/runny nose.Does anyone else find it odd you can have both at once? But I did do my 5K. I noticed I immediately felt warmer than usual and attributed it to the head cold and I envisioned my body eradicating the nasties inside with heat. I felt happy....yet still sick.
Come this morning, I felt a bit better than the night before and a lot better than the morning before so I headed to the gym bound and determined to run my 10K. Yes, I have tomorrow but in all reality, I want to run longer tomorrow. And yes, I could count the 10K split but to me, I prefer not to if it encourages me to run a little extra another day. Once again, I immediately felt warmer than usual and again, pace wasn't my sole focus. I am smart enough to know that I am running with a head cold and should have some sense of reasonableness in my run. So I fluctuated between the low and high end of my easy running pace range (9'40" to 10'00" by the way if I am not on the incline treadmill). It felt harder than it should but that makes sense. Unfortunately, my run ended with some stomach cramping that I attribute to gallons of snot being pounded out of my head with no where else really to go. And I am still envisioning my body eradicating more nasties. Perhaps by tomorrow morning I will be 100% again?
Daily Gratitude: I am thankful I completed all three runs in the Jelly Bean Virtual Race series.
Daily Affirmation: I am responsible for my own attitude.
P.S. Did you know this week is National Tsunami Preparedness Week? Go figure! I would learn about this on the final day. And yes, I think I am somewhat/kinda prepared for the unknown but yet, it is unknown so how can you be fully prepared? But I did include a link if you want to learn some more!
Happy Aloha Friday!