The Aftermath - Part 1

A little before noon, on this past Sunday, I never felt so relieved. It was a bit of a surreal experience, as I was coming into Center City Philadelphia I saw one of my best friends (thanks for coming out Bobbo and Kristina) and my family. I can truly say the rush of seeing them provided me with a little extra boost for the last dash across the finish line of the Philadelphia Marathon. As my buddy Andy and I crossed the line, arms raised, we let out a deep breath, gave each other a big man hug, then tried our best to rehydrate and fuel up before all the soreness set in.

It didn't take long...within 10 minutes my legs started to lock up, my swollen feet got achier by the minute, and since my heart was still beating like crazy my body temperature was getting all out of whack. We decided to skip the post race nap, thinking that lying down would just make the pain and stiffness worse. Two weeks ago, I very much looked forward to Sunday night. I wanted to eat a bunch of fried fatty food, drink more beers than I should, and get about 10 hours of sleep. I got to pick at some nachos, and have a couple beers, however sleep was interrupted by a fever, and it actually took a couple days before everything other than my legs felt back to normal.

A lot of people have asked me over the past couple of days, "when's the next one?". As of now, I'm still saying that this past Sunday I ran my one and only marathon, however I'm still going to give it another week, get back into the gym, then make a decision whether I want to try another one at some point next year. In my immediate plans are lots of food, Magic Hat Winter Ale, and some late nights with longtime friends, as I'm chilling out back in Rochester for Thanksgiving.

Part 2 coming tomorrow: A new venture, donation round up, and some random thoughts over recovery week...