There are a few thoughts I wanted to share about the actual marathon that I didn’t write down this morning.

You’ll be comforted to know that the marathon changed neither my personality nor my priorities:  I refused to wear one of those metallic trash bag-looking ponchos that they were handing out after the race.  Caitlin, Meghan, and Miguel were so sweet when I saw them, asking me if I needed anything, food, water, metallic poncho.  I was incredulous that they thought I would wear something like that EVER.  They asked whether I should wear one because I was supposed to post-race.  Hell to the no.  It’s just not cute enough.  Unfortunately I think Garrett was wearing one for some or all of our photographs.  I asked him to please take it off and I can’t remember if he did.

Another detail I omitted from this morning’s post is Sunday’s weather.  It was cloudy until after 11, until about mile 21-23 from what I recall.  Even then it wasn’t all that sunny or warm, I was merely hot from pushing myself.  We were fortunate in that we couldn’t have had better weather.

Finally, I see the role of my wonderful spectators a little more clearly today.  Yesterday I was so happy to see them at mile 21, as I am each time I see those who were present.  With the passage of a little time, I realize that seeing them there at mile 21 cheering for me and telling me how proud they were of me totally motivated me to really kick it up a notch between miles 23 and 26.  It seemed like such a far distance/duration while I was running, but I realize they were the reason for my strong finish.  Once again, we have something I could not have done without my amazing friends.

Today’s update is below.

Before I left the house today I ate three slices of pizza, two servings of Ensure, and two or three bowls of cereal.  Since my reduced schedule was not conducive to taking lunch, I ate (devoured, really) a whole roasted chicken, red potatoes, and a few pieces of bread after work.  Oh, and I had a large Jamba Juice between work and picking up dinner.  I feel as if I could eat more, but I’m so tired of eating and drinking water I just can’t do it.

It’s been fun telling everyone about the race – people at work, and people who live far away.  They’ve graciously listened to so much about it for so many months, I love being able to provide them with a happy ending, and everyone seems genuinely proud, which of course feels good.  I still have many telephone calls left to make.

I’m feeling better about my time though I was a little embarrassed telling it to people at work.  Today the official results were posted on the race web site.  My average time was 11:55 per mile.  I guess that’s pretty good for 26 miles, or at the very least it’s a good starting point.  Overall, I was 3434/4354 total runners, 2429/2873 total male runners, and (this one is not so hot) 430/498 total male runners ages 25-29.  I can’t wait until I’m in the 30+ bracket.  I think it will make my time more impressive.  Ha ha ha.  I remain proud of my strong finish and improved pace:  I finished half in 2:43:49.  Thus, my second half was shorter than my first half, and that is not necessarily typical.

By this afternoon I realized I was very tired.  I wasn’t sleepy from boredom as often happens in the afternoon, but rather I just felt that I didn’t have a lot of excess energy left (less so than a typical work day).  Happily I felt less stressed being at work.  It could be because I was only there for 4.5 hours.  However, I think at least some of that stress reduction can be attributed to the fact that the marathon is over and I met my goal.  I think the pre-race uncertainty was making me anxious and irritable and I didn’t really realize it.

I feel less sore now than yesterday (taking steps one per foot now though slowly), but random parts of me hurt.  For example, my sides hurt when I get up, my chest hurts when I cough, my back hurts when I raise my hands above my head while stretching, etc.  A colleague who has run at least several marathons warned me that I could be more sore tomorrow.  I can’t remember if that was true after previous long runs (and sadly I’m too lazy to look back on my blog to find out if that was the case.  I know, Karin Jue, if I used tags or categories it would be easy to figure out).  We shall see.  Either way, I am SO stoked about my massage on Wednesday.  I booked a male masseuse in hopes that he’s hot (unfortunately there are no pictures on the web site).  However the female one didn’t fit as well with my schedule.  Really.

I want to emphasize that I feel better today than I have after the bulk of our training runs.  A colleague who runs commented that she couldn’t believe how well I was getting around today.  That was awesome!

This afternoon I also realized that training for the marathon suits me so well because it is a concrete goal to work towards, a fun project with steps and a finite ending.  I’m going to have to find another fun project to occupy my time constructively.  I’m still half thinking of taking a creative writing class or workshop if I can figure out a place that will be the right fit.

Liane suggested that my performance might have been a little better if I’d slept more the night before.  She could be right.  I didn’t feel especially tired on race day considering what time I woke up, but it would be interesting to run a marathon after eight hours of sleep and see if there is a difference.

To that end, my thoughts have already turned to running another marathon.  I think it’s more a question of if rather than when.  I really want to improve my time, and the feeling that I had from really hoofing it at mile 23 until several hours after the race and perhaps even today – that runner’s high that is better than any drug – would be motivation enough.  There is a chance that I wouldn’t have the patience for another training session, especially if there are more discouraging injuries, and that I would feel over it given the work involved because I already achieved my goal of finishing.  Hopefully those feelings would be counteracted by the fact that I will be less discouraged by an injury during round two, and by desire to improve myself, respectively.  God I’ve even turned my expressing my feelings into a point/counterpoint list.  How disgustingly lawyer-ly.  I did something like that during the race and Erica, a fellow pace group member, teasingly pointed it out.

I might like to run the LA Marathon.  It would refreshing to experience a relatively flat course, and there would be something meaningful about running the marathon I grew up watching other runners run on television.  I could train up here, but it might be tough to do the actual run on my own.  Maybe I can convince Garrett he wants to do that one too!