Don't run 13 miles

Silly runner that I am, I came home last Friday only to get up and leave on Saturday to run a half-marathon in a little ski town in the Rockies.

A few suggestions:

1) Try not to schedule a race at 7,000 feet less than forty-eight hours after returning from sea level. They say you have approximately nineteen days to be away from altitude before your body will start adapting to the change in elevation but I think if you're not a professional, that number is much lower.

2) Don't race if the knee injury you've been nursing for the past six weeks or so starts to get worse the week before the race. Though I am a big believer in the "pain only gets to a certain point and then it doesn't get any worse" theory, thirteen miles is a long way to keep reminding yourself of that theory. The only thing that kept me running was the fact that I knew it would mean I finished sooner.

3) Don't play on a river bank the evening before the race with a 2-year old Labrador retriever; you will twist your ankle. If you do this, don't get up and run thirteen miles the next morning. It's just not smart.

4) If you feel like you're getting a cold, don't run thirteen miles. After about five miles, you will start to feel like someone is shoving a hot iron down your throat and there is not enough water and Gatorade on Earth to remedy that.

That said, I would happily do this race again. The scenery is beautiful in the Rockies this time of year and I'm never very good at taking advice anyway- even if it's my own.