I’m aching now, I’m aching now

Recovery from the marathon has gone well and one week later I feel great.  In fact, by last Friday I felt like going on a run however, I’m going to take my prescribed 10 days off before I get into one week of easy running.  My next big race will be the National Cross-Country Championships in Guelph on November 27th and I’ll likely have one tune-up race beforehand. 

I didn’t nearly eat as much junk food as I thought I would after the marathon.  I was pretty exhausted for the first two days after the race and I was craving healthy food but, I did eat more than my fair share of cookies.  I think I crave junk food much more when I’m burning a ton a calories each day… makes sense.

Looking back over the weather from Friday Sept 24th to Tuesday Sept 28th I feel so lucky to hit that perfect day.  I don’t think I would have changed the temperature at all and I cannot complain about the wind.  A few people mentioned it was breezy on race day but you can’t really expect zero wind.  On Friday before the race Gillis and I did a 7km run along the Lakeshore path in gale force wind.  Gillis asked me what I would plan to run in these conditions and I said sub 2:15 would be tough… and then a gust made us lean into the wind and I thought sub 2:18 would be a good accomplishment.  It was so brutal out there we actually ran with our shirts over our faces when the sand from the beach was blasting us.  We even wondered if geese could even fly in this wind.

My next marathon is planned for April 2011.  I feel I can run faster by at least 45 seconds for a few reasons.  My 2:16 and 2:17 from 2009 taught me a lot however running 2:11 also gave me more confidence.  Looking over my training there are things I can improve on and tweak.  Finally, if I have someone to run with past 22km I know I can stay on pace for longer, hopefully to the finish line.  Of course I’ll need to feel good on race day and have the weather cooperate.

Finishing the marathon:

Post-race interview:

I went on a leisurely hike to get out of the house for some fresh air.