Post race

by

Too soon for trail running

Alright.  I never said I was a smart runner.  Sometimes I do dumb things.

Yesterday, my second day back running after my marathon, I asked TJ if he wanted to go running with me at the State Park.  It was a beautiful day.  In fact, it was one of those days that if I was training for something, I would have really enjoyed my training day.  It was cool, low humidity, not a cloud in the sky.  It was awesome.

So we decided to go trail running a bit. I don’t trail run (except in marathons) and I am not 100% back from last Sunday’s race.  But I digress.

We drove to the park and went to the parking lot near the trails.  Low and behold we ran into my running buddy Neill (BigBigGeek) running his 12 mile long run (the last before his half marathon next week).  He looked great and was enjoying the weather.  By the way, he ended up with a 13.1 mile run and felt great doing it.  I am so excited for him.  A couple of weeks ago we ran an 11 mile run together in the heat and humidity and it was tough.

After a few minutes of talking we parted.  Neill went on to his record breaking run and TJ and I headed to the trails.

We had a fun run overall.  Neither of us run trails so we took it easy.  After about 1.5 miles the outside of my knee started to hurt.  It was annoying and steady, but I kept going.  After a while it became obvious that the pain was not going away and in fact was getting worse.  I had to start walking.  TJ showed me some stretches that helped, but the pain continued.  So we walked out to the main road and headed to our car without going back on the trail.

The good news is that within a half hour all pain was gone and I didn’t have any issues the rest of the day.  I imagine that my muscles are still repairing themselves and running a trail was too hard on them.  Oh well, live and learn.  It was only a 3 mile run/walk overall and it was probably good we stopped when we did.  I did enjoy the run and really enjoyed running trails with TJ.  It was a lot of fun.

Today is another cool morning but is going to get hot during the day.  I’m going to head out for an easy run and enjoy another day of just running for the fun of it!!!

by

My 2 mile run

I ran yesterday!!!

First run since Sunday’s marathon and for a whole 2 miles!!!

The 2 mile run yesterday was the same 2 miles I used to run in March 2012 when I first started running.  That was pretty neat.  It has been a LONG time since I just ran 2 miles and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

No pressure.

No pace.

No long distances.

I could stop if I wanted and not feel badly.

IT WAS FUN.

I wondered what emotions I would feel after my my first marathon.  Would I feel a let down as I worked so hard toward a goal and now it was over?  Would I be upset if I didn’t make my goal?  How would I feel?

I feel great.

Not to relate this to pregnancy, but I will anyway.  It is sort of like after a woman has a baby.  All the pain of the pregnancy and labor is forgotten after she sees the baby (so I hear).  I look back on this race with joy.  I know it was hard and I was in a lot of pain, but I would so do it again.

So life goes on.  I’m out of pain.  I’m running again.  I’m looking forward to the next race (not quite sure what it will be yet).

I’m happy!

by

The soreness continues :)

Coming off my marathon, there are a lot of questions.  What’s next?  Marathon, half marathon, 10K, 5K.

I guess I have to get over this soreness first.  I am worse this morning then I was yesterday.  I got up this morning and had to just stand for a minute before I could think of walking.  Next marathon I’ll train in cooler weather (hopefully) and be able to do more workouts.  I really needed another month of training before this race last Sunday.  But I made it through and am glad I kept an 8:00 pace for 12 miles.

Short post today.  Heading off to the cemetery to visit my dad and sister and then do some slow moving shopping.