Post Marathon Recovery

This is one of those posts that I have been waiting to write until I started to recover. I have been a little afraid to mention some of the things because it is embarrassing. But it might help someone out there, so here I go.

Physical:

• I have never been as that much pain than when I was in mile 24
• I kept going and when I finished, wow!
• I took my shoes off and counted at least 10 blisters on my feet
• 10 days later the blisters are almost gone
• The greatest thing on the market: bodyglide!
• The first 72 hours after the race, I was in pain. I was taking a lot of motrin.
• I went for a jog on Saturday. Made it a mile. That is all I had in me.
• Went to the gym on Monday. I had nothing!
• I am gaining more strength back every day
• Sometimes I get worn out after just a little activity
• I have read that it takes one day to recover for every mile run. That is 26 days for a full recovery. So I guess I will have to wait.
• Interesting twist: I have develop a much stronger taste for Gatorade

Emotional Side:

• This is a lot harder to talk about
• Finishing was an incredible feeling, one that I will never forget
• But then comes the "post marathon"
• Last week was really tough emotionally
• I did not feel like doing anything
• I remember having a meeting on Tuesday and just did not want to be there. I was just feeling so low.
• My feelins low had nothing to with our electricity being out for 72 hours, but this was bugging me. I felt like a failure, I felt like I could not provide for my family. Again this is not reality, I know that, but that is how I felt.
• There is a real empty feeling when you accomplish something that you have been wanting to do since the 6th grade.
• I have wondered how can I top this?
• If I do another one will it be this crazy?
• I wanted to be happy with my time, I am not. That messes me up.

Those are most of the things relating to marathon recovery that I am going through. Today, I feel good. But it took me ten days to be able to write all of this. Running 26.2 miles is tough. I did not know exactly what I was getting into when I started to train for the marathon. I do now. Training/finishing/recovering is the hardest thing I have ever done mentally. I hate sport cliches but it is truly 90% mental.

Will I ever run another marathon? I don't know yet. Am I glad that I did this one? Yes!