THE AFTERMATH OF 15.4 MILES

As I explained, I was a hot mess those last two miles. People were looking at me concerned at times because I was run/limping with what I am sure was a beautiful expression on my face. I was able to keep a decent pace though, while I fell off a little, I was still going at a decent clip and at no point did I walk. It was a point of pride for me at that time, I was gonna, excuse the expression, get'r'dun!


The part of the Eastbank Esplanade over the river.

Once I got back to the car I sat down in the front seat with my legs out the side onto the street. This was after a brief warm down walk. They felt tired and hurt but nothing too bad. I could still get around and I wasn't at that point that some people reach where they collapse and can't even walk. I was fine and was driving within five minutes. Driving wasn't comfortable however, my legs were aching and I was trying to stretch them out at stoplights.

The drove home felt like the longest drive ever. There was definitely some time dysmorphia going on, it took FOREVER. I just wanted to get home and lay down! That half an hour seemed like two hours. Anyways, I finally got home.

Stairs were a challenge at first as I had to climb each one individually with both feet before moving onto the next. By the end of the night I could take them in the standard one step, one stair fashion. Basically my legs were just achy and sore and laying down really didn't help. They hurt whether I moved them or not. I considered taking some ibuprofen but held off. It sucked but was manageable.

I was fairly sore yesterday but able to get around fine. I'm even better today. I think I'll go for a nice easy 5k tonight to work back into things. My long run this weekend will definitely be shorter! I am thinking 10 miles tops!

So maybe it was stupid to escalate my longest run by four whole miles, but looking back I think I got away with it and it was worth it. Really good marathon training by continuing to run even when you are completely gassed.

Most marathon training programs, especially those targeted at first timers, have the long runs capping out at 20-22 miles. So on marathon day you are going to be running 4-6 miles farther than you ever have before. This was a mini-practice of that then. Crazy to think a marathon was a whole additional 11 miles!

The good news was I ran a half marathon and was feeling good at 13.1 miles. So my first half marathon in a month won't be a total shock. I definitely didn't run this at the pace I would tackle at half marathon at (I am thinking 8:30mi), so I would expect to be a lot more gassed after 13.1 miles then. This was very good training though!

Anyways, I bowled a 223 last night on sore legs just over 24 hours removed from this long run, so I can't be that damaged.