The best thing is to make sure you're totally well! Eat and drink well (lots of ginger, garlic, organic chicken, root veggies, etc..) and consider taking Astragalus.

I wouldn't attempt the marathon unless you're totally well. The marathon places a huge stress on the immune system. If the immune system is already working hard there is a possibility that such a prolonged effort could spark a more serious illness such as CFS. I've read some posts on hear were people wrote that they ran a race while sick and suffered for months afterwards.

Hope you get well very quickly!

chikon,

If you're going to have a cold, then NOW (a week plus out from the race) is the time to do it. You've got plenty of time to rest and hydrate now and be completely recovered a few days before the race - then it's carbo load time!

kestrou

If you had a fever, you didn't have a cold. You had some sort of mild flu. (Thus the folk phrase, "Feed a cold, starve a fever.") It's important to get this straight before you figure out what to do this next week. Did you just feel lousy, or did you actually take your temperature and discover that it was elevated?

It never makes sense to run any race with a fever, since your performance is sure to be compromised and you might make yourself sicker. I've run several races, including a marathon, with colds. It's better if you're on the tail end of a cold, worse if you're just coming down with it.

If you have a fever now, I wouldn't run at all. Not a step, until that fever goes away. If you have a cold, on the other hand, I'd run my planned taper and simply dial back the intensity level a bit. If you were planning 4 miles at MP some time this week, for example, I'd run 2 miles at that pace. The calculus here is that it's marginally better to heal than it is to sharpen, if you're not too sick and on the road to full recovery.

I ran my first marathon with a cold. That led me to run a slow first half, 40 seconds a mile below planned MP, then pick it up radically in the second half. I had a great day, and while I ran a slower time than I'd hoped before landing the cold, I had a fine first marathon experience nonetheless.

That's what we're here for, chikon - to talk you down during the panic!

kestrou