Recovery Mode

Running a marathon is like giving birth to me. You forget how bad it beats you up. While you are running most of us think "Why am I doing this again?"  Almost directly after the volunteers place the medal around our neck we are thinking of what our next marathon will be. This is very similar to giving birth. As we are delivering that miracle of a child we think " OH Dear God, I am never doing this again." However, most of us find ourselves with multiple children.

The pain does not end at 26.2 miles. It was 2 days of agony trying to sleep with legs cramps and soreness. Being on vacation, we used a lot of public bathrooms. I do "The Hoover" when I go into a bathroom. I had to grab the handle many times as my legs failed me. I think I peed all over myself more than I made it into the toilets!

Thursday, I tried to run with Danielle. I made it a mile and knew I had to walk. It was more than just my legs that were struggling. My body felt like it had gone through a blender. I had no energy, I felt sick and my legs were not accepting of my body.
Danielle and I ran 5 miles, with walk breaks.

I have been going through the motions the last week. Bone tired and exhausted I can not even find the energy to get through the day more or less consider running.

We had to get up a 6AM to go to Alec's basketball tournament. I thought I was going to DIE.

The tournament was in Lansing, an hour and 1/2 away. I had no argument with myself about taking a nap.

Alec is number 12

 

Today was the day! Running is like brushing your teeth. It is habitual.
Sunday is always "RUN DAY".
When I woke up it was sunny and 50 degrees out. RUN RUN RUN. That is all I could think about. I assessed my body physically. I counted the days from my marathon. Then I prepared Alec that we would be leaving to run.

I am Alecs training coach for cross country at school. Alec got himself in some grade trouble and was ineligible to run last week. He is in the clear to run and so I decided I would run him!

I let him pick the route. He loves running trails. We headed to Sorenson Park.
Running in Gods country without the pollution of noise, cars or even people was delightful.
I again let Alec lead. I could watch him jump over branches and dodge logs all day long. He had the biggest grin on his face during our 3 mile run. Alec and I go "head to head" all day long. On the trails running we become one. We both find ourselves embedding into our surroundings. Breathing in the smells of earth, that crisp air against your bare skin, the sounds of branches snapping under your feet, is priceless. There is no place I would rather be.

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

This AND That:

Congrats to Anthony T and for winning "CLOSEST TO THE HOLE".

 

I am still recovering from a SUNBURN on my right side of my body from the Marathon!

 

I wanted to give a shout out to one of my new followers.. KRISTY H. It is great to have you following.

 

AND I would love to hear from LIZ..I hope I have her name right. I spoke to her and met her at the marathon. Where is LIZ???

 

Anita