Still walking

Today is the third morning after the marathon and I think I'm almost back to normal now. Sunday night wasn't too terribly bad after the massage, it felt like my legs, ankles, and backside had beaten with a bag of oranges. Monday morning was pretty rough and things got progressively worse throughout the day...it was such a relief to finally get to go home from work. I could hardly move an inch without my quads, and the majority of my lower body, desperately protesting. Tuesday wasn't much better, but definitely not any worse. And today, I'm pretty much walking normal now.
Thinking back on everything I put myself through during the past 4 months, I'd say I can put up with 3 days of high-level soreness. Today I'm determined to be completely ibuprofen-free! ...for the first time in over a month. If my liver was bleeding, hopefully it will stop soon.
As a result of all this marathon blogging, I got to thinking...I kind of like having a blog. There is a lot going on in my life right now, even outside of the marathon, and it feels kind of good to talk to no one and everyone at the same time. So perhaps this is the birth of a new blog: .
I'll get back to you when I come up with something catchy to title it.

I made it

I'm still not sure if it's actually sunken in yet, but I just ran a marathon. I think I'm still trying to convince myself that yes, it did happen, it's over. And I made it!
I really wanted to write a bit yesterday and release some nervous energy, boy was I getting nervous, but it was a super busy day and I just didn't make enough time for it. Friday after work I drove down to Portland to pick up my race packet, and that's when I officially became nervous. Of course there were a lot of people, but most of them...looked like they've done this before. Seeing my name on that huuge list of people running a marathon was very surreal.
Thanks to everybody who sent me wonderfully encouraging messages, I loved it! It was so nice to know there were so many people pulling for me!
Saturday flew by and luckily I didn't have much time to think about being nervous until later in the evening...when it was time to go to sleep. I did the best I could but I was pretty jittery. 5:00 a.m. came pretty quickly and before I knew it we were in the car driving downtown in the dark to the start of the race.
It was FREEEZING cold out and I foolishly shed my sweatshirt too soon and then stood for 20 minutes with my pace group waiting to start. That was a mistake. I'm a newbie and I got excited. I was too cold for the entire race and I think if I'd just waited a little longer to take off the sweatshirt it would have been much different. Thankfully it wasn't raining, I was so happy about that, it made everything much easier. "Easier".
Typically during a long run I feel my best during miles 5-15, but for some reason today I didn't start feeling good until after I hit 17 miles. It could have been the nerves, the different environment, the weather, or all of the above. I just know that 17 miles is a long ways to go not feeling very good. I was moving pretty slow, but also because I just didn't know how fast was okay for the entire distance of 26.2. I think miles 12-17 were the toughest because there was a very cold headwind coming off the Willamette River and freezing the heck out of me. My arms and hands were aching from the cold. I hit the halfway point of the marathon feeling really discouraged because I was being passed by so many people and just not really enjoying myself. Also the St. John's Bridge comes into view about 4 miles off and it looks soo far away and seems to take forever to get there. I was pretty uneasy going into mile 16 because there the big hill starts that leads up to the bridge (which is not steeper than my Doomsday Hill, but longer), then there's the bridge's ramp which isn't as steep as the hill, but pretty long too. Once I finally came down off that bridge I started to relax because I knew the big hill was behind me, and I now had less than 10 miles to go. And only 2 miles to go until I was hoping to see Coby and his sister Chandra, my parents and Joan. They waited for me bearing gatorade and energy gels and it was such a relief to see them! Seeing them there cheering me on and being so excited was the best feeling in the world and it definitely gave me a boost. Thanks guys!
About the same time I saw them, I started feeling my baby toe on my right foot getting a blister. At that point it wasn't bad and I was feeling pretty good so I kept going without changing bandaids or socks. I survived the race with fairly minimal pain but now I'm wishing I'd taken the time to change...my baby toes on both feet are now very tender. Still attached, but very tender.
Mile 21-23 ish were great and largely downhill which was fantastic and somehow it didn't bother my knees. The bummer part about not flowing until mile 17 is that it's so late in the game that the flow was pretty short-lived. Mile 24 I started really feeling tired and had to walk a bit. I'm not sure if I actually ever "hit the wall" though; I kept telling myself I wasn't going to and I think that helped significantly. When mile 25 rolled around there was no stopping me, I wanted this to be over. Down the straight-away, around the corner and a quick left and there it was! The finish line! My fan club was right there cheering away and got to watch me finish! Boy was that one satisfying finish, I was so happy to be done. I wrapped up in a blanket and began hobbling back to the car with my family and came home to a wonderful ice bath. And then a truly wonderful massage. Man that felt good; and it really helped to relieve my muscles of all the toxins and lactic acid build-up. I'm walking still tonight! (Not sure what will happen in the morning, but for tonight I'm okay...)
While sitting in the tub and reading the last chapter of my marathon book entitled "post marathon" was perhaps when the entire day began to sink in. I just ran a marathon.

Forecast update #3:

Partly cloudy, high of 65, 10% chance of showers.