Marathon Recovery

I really had no idea what to expect this week following the marathon.  I knew things would hurt, but all of the things I anticipated hurting really didn’t.  Crazy, right?  All of the issues I’d had with my feet throughout training, I came out of this race without any foot pain whatsoever, and not a single blister.  I have all of my toenails.  If you look at my feet now, you’d never guess they ran a marathon.  They don’t feel like it either.  Rock on.

My hip was also a concern of mine.  I ran the race with my right hip flexor KT Taped, as well as my IT band along my right hip.  I’ve experience a little bit of soreness in my hip flexor, but nothing like I thought maybe I would.  Another win.

My poor quads took the brunt of the SORENESS.  Oh boy.  Stairs, sitting down (toilets), and sudden movement = NOT FUN.   

My recovery week has gone like this:

Saturday post-race: Drank two scoops of Rezzerect, a carton of fat-free chocolate milk, and a banana.  Of course I refueled with food the rest of the day!  Saturday night I took Nighttime Recovery.

Sunday: PAIN TRAIN.  I foam rolled and walked.  We actually went shopping, the walking was nice, but the car ride caused some extra stiffness in my quads.

Monday: I foam rolled and then sat in the whirlpool for about 15 minutes.  I headed to the sauna for another 20 minutes or so.  The heat really helped relax my muscles.  Monday evening I went for a walk.

Tuesday: 30 minutes on the elliptical on an EASY setting.  

Wednesday: 40 minutes on the elliptical, a little bit more resistance and incline than Tuesday, and some upper body weights.  I also went for a short walk.

Thursday: FIRST RUN!!! 4 miles.  My legs felt about 95% to start out.  I felt so excited to be back out on the road.  My legs fatigued VERY quickly.  I finished the 4 miles at an 8:54 average pace.  It’s a little discouraging to feel like a tired turtle, but I need to remember that I’m recovering.

I plan to get back to CXWORX at the end of the week and do another short, easy run this Saturday.  My diet this week has been high on protein, and I’ve really tried to scale my carb intake back.  My carb loading week was difficult, I felt like I was force feeding, but I really think I did it right.

I’ll keep sporting my Pro Compression calf sleeves under my dress pants, and foam roll and stretch like it’s my job!

True dat!

Brookings Marathon Pt 3 – THE PROPOSAL!!!!!

It’s taken me almost a week to finish recapping this entire day because honestly I’m still processing it.  I keep having flash backs to the finish line, and I still feel like it was a dream.

I turned that final stretch into the park towards the finish line and had no idea what was next.  A little back story here, the only people I thought were in Brookings were my mom and Heidi.  Ben had the weekend off, but he told me all week he would probably end up working Saturday morning.  In the back of my mind, I secretly hoped maybe he would end up coming up for the race, but I knew it was a 3 ½ hour drive just to watch a few seconds of me actually running.  So I expected to finish and hug my mom and Heidi with joy, and freak out and celebrate this huge accomplishment.   Well, what actually happened was this…

Ben planned this surprise for the entire week.  He asked my parents for their blessing on Monday night, and waited patiently until Saturday.  He was acting a little weird all week, and kept asking me if I was nervous for the race.  I’m not an easy person to surprise BTW.  I am a snoop, and I will figure it out, but this one I definitely didn’t.

I crossed the finish line and of course, stopped my watch!  The National Guard men and women were standing there handing out the finisher medals.  I remember walking towards one with arms outstretched just wanting my medal!  They corralled me over to the side and finally put my medal around my neck and wrapped me in a finisher’s blanket.  They completely surrounded me such that I couldn’t see anything else around me.  They made sure I was facing forward and then all at once they moved from in front of me.  There was Ben, on one knee, with a shiny ring in my face.  I remember saying “Oh my God” and eventually realizing crap, I need to say YES too!

Eventually I realized my dad and Ben’s mom were also there, and they had been filming the entire moment.  It was so surreal.  I can’t even explain the shock and joy I felt in those moments.  I cried like crazy, but I think I was a little dehydrated, I don’t remember actually having tears!  Everyone around us was cheering and congratulating us.  This part was a huge blur for me, and I wish I would have been a little more coherent for this part!  

 

After more hugs and tears, we made our way over to the food tent.  I tried to get something to eat and drink, but my head was spinning.  Since my parents and Ben’s had known about the proposal all week, the rest of our families already knew, but I wanted to start calling some of my friends right away.  I made some calls and texts, and then plopped down on the ground for a while.  They started the awards for the half and full marathon.  They didn’t announce age group awards, but I was first place in my age group.  I picked up my lovely prize, a stocking hat!

I still think back to May 3, 2014 and I will never forget a single minute of it.  It was lucky, it was special, it was a goal achieved, it was a new beginning, it was everything I ever could have wanted.  The motto of our relationship has been “it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” 

Brookings Marathon Pt 2 - The RACE!

I set my alarm for 5:00AM on race morning, but I woke up at 4:00 and stared at the clock.  I woke up thinking that in a few hours, all of this will be over.  All of the training, the anticipation, the fear of getting injured, everything.  Done.  I felt mixed emotions about all of it, but I was really just ready to get the show on the road!

I had a cup of coffee in the motel and started getting ready.  The race started at 7:00AM so I planned to eat my breakfast around 5:30.  My standard pre-race/run fuel has always been Cheerios and milk.  Last year it was Peanut Butter, this year, Honey Nut.  I had my cereal and a Clif bar and just a little bit of Gatorade.

At 6:00AM I took my O2 Gold and drank Spark and Arginine Extreme on the way to the race.

Gotta have a pre-race, motel bathroom selfie right?

I stretched and finished pinning on my bib and tying my shoes, and we were out the door.  We planned to leave the motel around 6:15 to make it to the park around 6:30.  It ended up only taking us about 10 minutes to get there.

It was a bit chilly, I had gloves, but ended up ditching them before the race started.

We had to pose and show off our guns

We hung out around the porta potties like cool people do and warmed up and stretched.  Then the announcement came that it was time to line up!  

I left my headphones out the first maybe half mile just to soak everything in.  I was in shock that this was actually happening, oh, and that I have 26 miles ahead of me.  I had to put my music on pretty quickly!

The course was fantastic.  There were lots of turns, lots to see.  The route went through the college campus, as well as a couple parks and a golf course.  Most of the streets we were on were residential, there wasn't much traffic going by.

The first 5 miles went fairly quickly.  I was in a zone, and I never once thought about how far I still had to go.  It was one of those running days where everything clicks.  Your brain and your legs are on the same wavelength, and it's just effortless.

Mile 5-6 is when I caught up with Heidi.  We ran side by side for about a mile and a half.  We have a strict "no talking while running" rule, and we stuck to it.  It was nice to just run silently together for a while.

Mile 7 I took my first Gu.  I carried my shot bottle filled with orange Powerade Zero.  This has always worked well for me.  I can't drink out of the cup at water stations to save my life, and I don't like to have to stop and deal with the crowds around them.

Mile 9 we entered the back side of a park, and there was the dumbest hill I've ever seen in my life.  It was the steepest hill of the entire course, but it was a tiny bike path, and it was just steep.  The downhill was actually worse than the uphill.  I had to almost completely stop to hold back downward momentum and not fall on my face.  I saw my mom for the first time at mile 9 and waved for her to refill my bottle.  She left the Powerade in the car, so that meant she was headed to mile 12 to meet me again.  I'm lucky to have such a great race assistant!

Mile 11 the half and full marathoners split off.  That was exciting to me.  That meant it was getting real, and I could also gauge who my competition was!  The nice thing about this race are the different bib colors to designate half, full, and relay runners.  It was nice to know the person sprinting past you was a relay runner!

Mile 12 I stopped for a second in the road to get some more Powerade from my mom and kept trucking along.  I hit the half mark at 1:52 something.  I don't know what happened after that, my body just took off.  My next miles were my fastest of the entire race.  8:15 and 8:08 came out of the blue.  I knew I needed to calm down a little and slow back down, but it was a serious rush at that point.

The miles after the half way point were out in a rural park and on a trail.  The wind had picked up quite a bit at this point and it seemed to be more of a struggle.  I really wanted to get back into town and feel more protected.  I took my second Gu at mile 14.

Mile 19 was the next marker I was focused on.  I knew it would be around a church we drove by the night before, and I knew my mom was planning to be there.  I refilled my bottle again and kept on going.  I focused on hitting mile 20 and taking my last Gu.  

I really had no idea what to expect that last 10K.  I hit 20 around 2:51, so I knew that even 10 minute miles the rest of the way got me sub 4.  But I knew I had faster miles left in me.  I kept waiting for "the wall".  I'm sure this was a rookie marathoner once in a lifetime kind of thing, but I NEVER hit it.  I never once felt like I couldn't keep going mentally or physically.  I slowed down quite a bit, but my slowest two miles were 9:20s.  I stopped at a water station around mile 23 and took a drink of water.  I had some Powerade left, but I felt like I needed water.  My lips were sticky with Gu, and I felt my face and lips getting sun and wind burned.

Mile 24 I realized I only had two more miles, and that I should just soak this all in.  I remember taking deep breaths and looking around and just enjoying the view.  I couldn't believe this was almost over.  Mile 25 the rush of what I had left in me hit, and I took off.  I passed about 3 guys in that last mile, which makes me smile.  I was on the last loop right before turning back into the park towards the finish line and I started swearing... I was just in shock this was real.  I couldn't believe it.  I said holy... to things that aren't holy... I'm pretty sure people had to have heard me!

I realized my time was going to be 3:48 something and I just couldn't believe it.  This was what I wanted SO BADLY for so long.  It was so surreal.  I tried to throw my hands in the air, but I think my arms were too tired!

At that second, I was convinced that was the greatest moment of my entire life.  It doesn't get better than this.  But it did...

Brookings Marathon Pt 1

This entire weekend is still a blur!  It was the BEST weekend of my entire life, hands down.  I have A LOT to say about the race, and the weekend in general, so this recap will be in three parts!

Flashback to Friday.  We left for Brookings Friday afternoon to get to town to eat and pick up our packets.  It is about three and a half hours away, but at least it was a good day for a road trip!  I'll do an entire post regarding my race week taper and carb loading strategy because I think I did it right!  We made a few stops on the way up due to my constant need to hydrate.  I'm really weird about water, I don't like plain water, I am that person that always has Mio or Crystal Light in their purse to dump into water.  I will only drink SmartWater plain.  Crazy, but I loaded up on SmartWater and Gatorade Friday afternoon!

I stalked the weather....

 

My mom drove me, and Heidi was planning to meet us up there.  We stayed in the same motel, which was actually a nice motel!  I have a history of booking not so nice places to stay for races.  Heidi has done the same.  But we had really nice rooms and it was a comfortable place to spend the night.

Brookings, SD is a beautiful town.  I'd never been there, the farthest north I'd ever been into South Dakota was Sioux Falls.  Brookings is home to South Dakota State University and the campus was gorgeous.  The population of the town is roughly 22,000, which is basically like Norfolk.  I really felt like I was running at home.

Packet pick up was at the Children's Museum Friday evening, and they were also running the 5K Friday at 6:00pm.  We arrived just as the 5K runners were taking off from in front of the museum. 

In my opinion, there are so many advantages of smaller races.  One is easy and fast packet pick up.  They were very organized, and all of the volunteers were very friendly.  Heidi made a shirt exchange, and I bought another pull over shirt that they were selling.  I definitely wanted a lot of gear displaying this race!

We headed to Pizza Hut for our final supper.  Pizza has always been the go-to for me the night before a race.  I know it doesn't work for everyone, but pasta doesn't work for me!   I had pizza and breadsticks, and Heidi had spaghetti with grilled chicken.  Carb load, check!

We drove around town to scout out the places my mom would be able to watch along the route, and planned our meet up at the end. 

I laid out my race gear the night before.  The outfit I had planned got scrapped because it wasn't going to be super warm.  It was right at 40 at the start, and I don't think it actually warmed up that much.  The wind picked up and I know I never once got hot!

I wore an Under Armour tee underneath the Brookings Marathon half zips that came with the marathon entry fee, Under Armour shorts and compression shorts, Pro Compression socks, and my purple Mizuno Wave Riders.

It's a good thing I didn't know what all was coming that next day, or I wouldn't have slept AT ALL compared to the little I did actually sleep!  To be continued....