TO RACE OR NOT TO RACE?

To race, or not to race: that is the question:

Whether 'tis wiser in the mind to suffer

Through a local 5K, the Turkey Trot perhaps,

Or to rest these tired and strained legs,

And by resting heal them? To take time off: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end training

The pounding and the thousand natural shocks

These legs are heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To rest, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream of the marathon: ay--there's the rub;

For in that sleep of rest what dreams may come:

Dreams of shuffling for more than 26 miles at record pace,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes a challenge of so long a race.

My apologies to Shakespeare. I'm trying to decide whether or not to run the Hole and Run Turkey Trot 5K next week in Wheeling, West Virginia. I've been nursing a calf injury since the Columbus Half in mid October. I finally made it through a good run on Monday with just slight pain.

The wise decision would be not to race, to rest, and to dream about running the Glass City Marathon in Toledo in April and hopefully qualify for the Boston. I should make sure I am fully recovered before I start the arduous training in January.

Thus conscience and common sense does make cowards of us all.

But yet I hear the call . . . to race, to compete, to stand at the line, and not lose the name of action.

And besides. How much damage can a 5K do me?