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As I had mentioned last week, I was supposed to run Rock’n’Roll Chicago this past weekend. Well, that didn’t happen, and I’m pretty sad about it, but I feel like I made the right choice. I was SO excited for the race, as I had an amazing time during race weekend last year, which makes it all the more sad. And of course I put in the time to actually train for the race as well.
Ultimately, the reason I decided to not run was the heat. With POTS, I have problems cooling myself effectively, and got overheated really quickly while running in hot weather. Plainly put- it’s dangerous for me to run in hot weather, as evidenced by the goosebumps and shivering that occurred at mile 12 of a half marathon I ran last summer. Heat stroke or exhaustion is no joke. It’s dangerous to put myself in that situation, and I wasn’t willing to do it again.
There were other factors, however, that made the weekend difficult as well. I spent all last week in NYC, and walked 9-10 miles a day, so I was pretty tired- there was no real tapering and I definitely didn’t have rested legs. My flight got delayed coming home so I would have slept a few hours after landing and then driven to Chicago in a rush, hoping I made it in time. There’s no way I was going to do that. And honestly, I’ve been traveling almost non stop for over a month now, and I’m just tired. It’s all been fun and SO worth it, but all I was craving was a low-key weekend at home, and the race wouldn’t have been that. If I had a friend I was doing it with, I might have tried to run, but being in the city on my own with potential huge medical situations that could arise with the temperature and POTS just wasn’t worth it to me. This was confirmed when I checked the weather yesterday morning and the feels like was 86 degrees when I knew I would’ve only been at mile 9 or 10. I would’ve ended up walking most of the race anyways.
As runners we’re faced with regular choices for our health and well-being, and this was one of them. I would’ve loved to have a fun weekend in Chicago racing on streets that I loved, but it wouldn’t have been smart of me to do so, especially with my POTS diagnosis. Sometimes we have to check out of what we want and tune into what we know is safe and healthy for ourselves.
I do look forward to running my next RnR event, however, as they put on a great race! And, if you’re wanting to sign up for a RnR race for yourself, here’s a code for you to use!
Now it’s your to turn to share! Have you ever decided to DNS a race because you knew it was the healthiest or safest option for yourself?
I actually thought of you over the weekend after I saw a post on FB about how hot it was expected to be for this race! I have not run 2 half marathons that I signed up for this year, both times because I was so undertrained that it wasn’t worth the risk of injury. I think you made the right decision – there is always next year, and your health and safety has to come first. Especially since you were going to be alone!
Yeah- I’ve heard that it was a hot and gross race from several people. It’s hard to choose to not run, but I think it’s worth it in the end. It sounds like you’ve made some good choices with racing as well!
I’m sorry you didn’t get to race this weekend, but it sounds like it wast the right decision. Sometimes DNSing is smarter than doing something that would be unhealthy. The good news it, there will always be other races. Way to play it smart!
You’re absolutely right. As runners we are sort of trained to just push through it, and sometimes that’s not the right choice. There will be other races, and hopefully I can race in Chicago again next year!
There’s always next year! And based on Indy Women’s last year, it was probably best to sit this one out. 🙂
I have had to DNS many times due to injury. Always sucks, but you made the best call listening to your body.