Cowboy Hazel

It's been almost a week since my first marathon and, to be honest with you, I don't feel anything near what I thought I would at this point.

Mentally, I had imagined that there would be this huge sense of relief after finally achieving a goal that had been on my horizon for so long. That relief never came. If anything, I feel like I have more to prove now than ever before. I think a lot of this is because I didn't really "run" the marathon by my own definition. Because of the cramps in mile 22 where I had to walk, I have trouble honestly saying that I ran a marathon. I mean, I didn't run a marathon – I ran 22 miles, then I jogged/walked 2 miles, then I ran 2.2 more miles. And, although that might be running a marathon by others' definitions, it's not by mine. And so, I sort of feel like I'm in this state of limbo regarding my status as a marathoner. When people ask me if I've run a marathon, I hesitate.

Not qualifying for Boston was of course a huge disappointment, but it hasn't bothered me as much as I thought it would. If anything, I'm relieved that I don't have to start training again right away and am genuinely looking forward to all the short winter races instead. As I said in one of the various conversations I this week, it wasn't the time. I was okay with 3:16, and even if it had been 3:20 or 3:30, I would have been okay with it if I had just kept running the whole time. Of course, I would have felt better if I had gotten sub-3:10 like I planned, but that wasn't the main disappointment.

Physically, I bounced back way quicker than I thought I would. I read a bunch of articles that recommended rest periods of up to a couple weeks after the race. I knew that long of a break wouldn't work for me, but I expected to take at least a little time off. Instead, I took my Monday rest day as normal, then came back and ran on Tuesday without even that much soreness. Thursday, of course, I had that amazing race out in Brooklyn, then yesterday I ran 6 miles at a sub-7 pace and then today, I ran almost a full minute faster than I ever had before on my little 4.04 mile stretch of the East River. Out of curiousity, I quickly compiled a collection of all 94 times I've run this route (in addition to the times I've run it as part of longer runs) here on my running log. I wasn't looking to run a 6:29 pace today, it just happened. I don't even know how to explain it – It's like this whole week, I've just had this extra reservoir of speed and energy inside of me that's trying to escape. It feels great and I hope it lasts.

That's not to say there haven't been aches and pains. My left foot is still bothering me a bunch – both the muscle in the arch and my little toes (it looks like I'm going to be down to 6 toenails soon...) My right knee started giving me some serious grief today too – the same sharp shooting pain that first appeared about a month ago. And, my left hamstring has been extra sore ever since Thursday's race. Yet, none of them are really slowing me down. I feel like they're all just within the realm of normal "wear and tear" on a runner's body. At least that's what I hope they are.

So, tomorrow, I'm thinking it's going to be a twelve mile run in Central Park. I never thought that's how I'd be spending my post-marathon weekend but, honestly, it sounds better than anything else I can think of doing and I'm really looking forward to it. Holy crap, I'm addicted to this whole running thing!

p.s. Thank you all for the great comments over the past week! It's been great to read what you guys have to say.

p.p.s. If you're interested, I put up photos of from Philly here.