Post-marathon sniffles nothing to sneeze at

On Nov. 9, Jim Warrenfeltz ran the OBX Marathon. He's a fast guy and scored a new personal record that day by a few minutes, running the race in two hours, 54 minutes and 30 seconds.

His post-running bliss was short lived, though. "You never feel good after a marathon," said Warrenfeltz, 33, of Emmaus, Pa. That not feeling good turned out to be something worse than just sore legs. On the Tuesday after, he started to feel bad. By Wednesday, he'd developed a cough and general felt of "crud."

Warrenfeltz fell victim to a common post-marathon ailment: the "marathon sniffles." If you picked up a bug after you finished the Philadelphia Marathon on Sunday, know that it's not just in your head. Moderate running is good for your immune system, but a whole body stressor like running 26.2 miles as fast as possible can send it into a tailspin.

The culprit is cortisol, a stress hormone. When our body is stressed - like in a marathon - it produces more of that hormone, which has the side effect of surpressing the the immune system. The first 72 hours following a marathon is the biggest risk window.

Warrenfeltz has run 10 marathons and gotten the sniffles twice. I've run five marathons and had it happen twice, too, most recently after the New York City Marathon on Nov. 2. A week later, I was on my couch with a head cold and a vat of green tea. Two weeks after the race, that head cold had migrated into a sinus infection. More than three weeks after the race, as I write this, a tissue box still holds a place of honor on my desk.

There's not much runners can do about the marathon sniffles except avoid people and places where you could pick up a malady. Runner's World magazine recommends practical things like avoiding post-race high fives and getting plenty of sleep after a race to help your system recover. They also suggest bringing an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with you to use after you run, but if you're like me and carry as little as possible when racing, that's not entirely practical.

I may have set myself up to get sick by both taking a lot of public transportation after the race, and then hanging out with a germ bomb, a.k.a., a toddler. Plus, I depressed my immune system right at the kickoff of cold and flu season. I'm not surprised I picked up that cold.

Warrenfeltz is working to overcome his marathon sniffles, which is still stuck in his lungs. It hasn't stopped him from wanting to race marathons though. "You take risks every day," he said. "It's fun. It just beats you up."