Post-Marathon Reality

I haven't gotten the post-marathon blues, thankfully. Yet. A lot of runners say they get depressed after and I can see why. You train for months, you push your body past where you thought it could go on race day, and then it's over. I definitely felt an acute sense of reality on Tuesday when I went back to work. Life goes on. The race is over. One day all of NYC is screaming your name, the next you're just a regular jerk again. But that's okay. If I had a lousy marathon experience maybe I'd feel differently but I did as well as I could and better than I had hoped.

I did my first post-marathon run on the treadmill last night. I did 3.1 miles (a 5K) and it was a nice little recovery run. It gave me the chance to remember what it felt like to be running in the greatest city in the world. I was smiling a lot during my workout. I didn't push hard on pace at all, it was more about just staying loose. I think it was a good thing to do because warming up my legs again seemed to get the last bit of stiffness out of them. I was talking to my uncle tonight (he's run NYC a few times) and he said that even though I feel recovered, I'm not. This is when injuries can happen because I feel better than I am. Literally within the last hour I've developed a raging head cold: fever, headache, the works, so that will be a forced recovery, I suppose. I haven't had a cold in over a year, I guess it's due.

Official pictures are supposed to be out tomorrow. Ugh. I hope I get one, just ONE decent one.

Someone posted this video on the marathon FB page. It's awesome!



I wonder why they didn't include the third wave but I was happy that mine was in there. Mine seemed to be way more crowded than the first. If you're watching the video with the runners coming toward you, I was on the right lane of the upper deck. It didn't seem like that many people when we took off, I felt like I had room to run and no one tried to knock me down to get around me.

Great memories. I still can't believe I did it!