Before I launch forth, I want to first discourage people from taking the moral high ground with me, so I’m going to pose the question…

There is an A Race in your training year.  It means more to you than anything, but you’ve been unwell in the week prior.  You wake up on race day feeling great – do you line up?

Imagine training for Ironman, for example, but illness or injury plagues you at the eleventh hour.  How heartbreaking would that be?  In fact, I recall Tracey Richardson mentioning in her book that she had a heavy cold the day before Ironman, but she woke up on the day feeling as right as rain.  Phew.  But wouldn’t it rip your knickers at the prospect that your day was going to be over before it even started?

This is about Ella.  She was off school last Friday because she had flu-like symptoms.  Not just a cold, but achey joints, headache, fever etc.  She picked up again quite quickly, but developed a good bark on her and a heavy cold ensued.  Louis had the same.  When I discussed it at work yesterday, it was decided that I should work from home as a protection for my colleagues, as if it was H1N1 (or even just seasonal flu for that matter), I was still in the infectious period.  So I’ve been away from the office since yesterday and the seven day period ends on Friday.

Anyway, today was the Central Zones Cross Country.  This is THE race of the primary school year and brings together 800 of Canterbury’s best runners.  This time last year, Ella finished in the top ten (7th place) out of 80-90 girls so qualified to travel to Wellington to represent Canterbury at an inter-regional race.  That was a huge deal and there never any question that the same race would be her motivation in 2009.  This year, the inter-regional race is in Nelson, coincidentally two days before the Spring Challenge.  Ella knows the competition in her age group well as she races against them most Saturdays,  and unless something catastrophic happened, Ella was confident she would make the top ten again.  We had it tentatively planned that we would go up and watch the race in Nelson, then return home via the Spring Challenge.

But that was all before she got sick.

The weather over the past few days has looked decidedly dodgey for today.  That was going to be our saving grace – the race would be postponed until next Wednesday;  a further week for Ella to recover.  We told her on Monday that if the race was going to go ahead today, it was not in her best interest to compete, but the weather was looking lousy – phew!  She was gutted at our advice.  But yesterday, the weather picked up, and so did Ella’s health.  She was bouncing off the walls, so we were all really relieved – the race was going to go ahead, and Ella assured us that she felt fine to be on the start line.

This morning, we did everything we possibly could to make sure she was prepared.  Pancakes for breakfast (proven pre-race food for her!), and I’d thrown a gel into a bottle of water for her to sup on until her race started.  Bearing in mind she hasn’t been eating well over the past several days, I was mindful she was going to need every opportunity to consume a few last minute carbs.

Her warm-up pre-race was not the best, but all kids were in the same boat as they had to line up around ten minutes before race start.  She didn’t get to do many pick-ups which was disappointing - in light of her not having run for a few days, I’m sure her legs were going to wonder what had hit them.

To cut a long story short, Ella’s race was as you’d expect.  32nd place overall.  A top ten place well out of her grasp.  Sure enough, out of the girls who made the top ten, based on current form, Ella probably would have been 5th-7th if she had been well.  But there’s nothing that can be done – it’s the way the cookie crumbles.  There is nothing subjective about the results – it’s first across the line and if you’re not good enough, you’re simply not good enough.  There’s no second qualifying race – if you’re not up to it on race day, there’s no second chance.

I wanted to cry for her.  I knew how important that race was to her, and she almost crumpled into a heap when she came across the finish line.  Some girls vomited as they finished, such was the exertion, and Ella said she felt sick.  But she simply had nothing in her.  She had been taken to the race by a school friend’s mum, and she was expected to return to school afterwards, but she was simply too ill.  So I let the mother know that Ella was going home with me and I helped her hobble her way across the fields and back to the car.

I’d have to say, today was one of the most difficult parental decisions I’ve had to make.  I know, in the scheme of things, it’s not that important, but how do you tell a child that they can’t do something, when they believe (and seem) they can, and when it’s so important to them?  If she hadn’t have done it, we would have been faced with the “What ifs”.  What if she had been fine, and qualifed?  Now she’s done it, we know it was a bad call.  But hey, sometimes you have to make a call on the information you have at the time.

Silver Lining

Yes, there is one.  The inter-regional race is an open race, that is, you don’t actually have to qualify to compete in it.  Sure, there’s loads of glory in representing your province, but Ella can still compete in it, representing her school.  Fortunately the coach of the representative team welcomes children who will be travelling to Nelson to compete under their own steam (like Ella), so she can train with the representative team each week.  And once she’s 100% healthy again, she can foot it with the team – there are no problems with that, and it will be great motivation for her to prove that all things being equal, she would have qualified today.  She can go to Nelson with the motivation to race and hopefully beat some of the provincial representatives, because she knows she can.  She can stay with us in a motel instead of the Tahuna camping ground too!!

So while she missed the glory today, she does have renewed enthusiasm.  But this week has certainly been crap in terms of putting us all into a bit of a rut.  And unfortunately the health of the nation is only going to get a damn sight worse than it is this week!