Not the Marathon lead up I wanted...

So I have the final run in my Australian Challenge in two weeks time and it is a full 42.2km run (rather than the 21.1kms I have been doing) and I have had a shocking lead up to it.

Last week I took a dramatic downturn health wise and ended up at the after hours doctors clinic. I had pretty extreme chills (whilst sweating) and some pretty high levels of pain and cramps in my lower back/kidney region. Add to this that I also had conjunctivitis and my eldest son was with me in pretty poor shape of his own we made for a very sorry site.

My son - septic strep throat. Poor little mite. Huge dose of antibiotics for him.

Me - kidney infection! Antibiotics (so big that they would make a horse gag) and drops for the eyes.

Needless to say my son and I took up residence on the couch and I set my alarm for every 3 hours to wake up and give him his drugs and force feed him a snack and then I would doze back off till the next alarm. I think my darling wife died a little inside having to go to work for those two days!

I have a follow up appointment with the Doc in a couple of days (finish the antiBs tonight) and am hoping that I get the all clear to go for a gentle run this weekend. At the moment, whilst I feel vastly improved (and am at work) I feel like someone has taken a bat to my lower back and feel generally washed out.

I will refrain from running till this weekend in the faint hopes that I will give myself that extra little bit of recovery and I hope that some of the base level fitness remains to help carry me through.

I have had to change my game plan for the marathon and whilst 4:30 is still my wish (well 4:00 is my real wish) I have some to the realisation that finishing the challenge is the bigger deal this time and I will aim to enjoy the day as much as possible. I hope to replicate the enjoyment I got out of the Blackmores run a few weeks ago.

Hope all is well and thanks for reading.

PS - My eldest - bounced back and you wouldn't know anything was ever wrong with him - jealous of the resilience of youth - just a little ;)