Not today. Or tomorrow.

Just a quick post tonight. Not that I don't have much to say, but just because I am giving myself an evening break from all things triathlon.

So the big news of the day is that I won't be racing tomorrow, I withdrew today. In short I have been trying to get past this cold thing for the past week and a bit and I just haven't been able to shake it. In fact since I have got to Phuket and done the last bit of my race prep it has felt like it has been getting worse.

Tomorrow is going to be a brutal day. There is no ifs or buts about that. Today it got up to the high 30s, possibly even the low 40s, with buckets of humidity. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same. This is a phenomenally tough course, even without the weather. Tomorrow it will be a killer. It is going to be the sort of day where you want to be 100% and I am not.

Could I limp through the day and finish? Fairly sure. Do I want to do that? Not really. It will sound strange but at the moment I would prefer to have a DNS because I know that racing tomorrow is not a smart move, rather than a DNF or a mediocre result because I thought I would give it a crack. That might sound strange to some people, but to me there is no shame in a DNS when you know your body is talking to you. Sometimes it is the right call and I know that. I struggle with DNFs though, it is a personal thing, history and stuff. I will lose no sleep tonight with my DNS though.

Some wonder if my trip wasn't perhaps a bit of a waste then, but the answer is no, not really. This trip was only ever partly about the race, the rest was about a family holiday and so far that has been going great and I expect it will continue to do so.

So that is my decision. I don't want people to get the wrong idea, I am not keeping this brief because I am upset or distraught about the decision. In fact I am perfectly okay with it because I am quite certain it is the right move. Having made the decision it is a weight off my mind. But sometimes you want to take the opportunity to not be stretching, or thinking about racing, or writing a blog, but instead just relax with a book for the night. So that is what I am going to do.

So tomorrow I will be at the start line, but I will be on the spectator side rather than the race side, cheering very hard for the tough souls taking on the course. I am surprisingly okay with that. For now though, time to find my book.