I'm thankful that I not only finished a marathon, but I finished it healthy and in one piece!
Since I've finished the marathon, one of the first things I always tell people who are considering doing one is that its a different race than any you've ever done. For me the half is just a regular race. You run, you pace yourself, and then you finish. The marathon on the other hand consists of running, pacing, enduring, and then finishing. The enduring part was a completely new aspect of racing for me. I'm pretty sure that I bonked but I wouldn't call it a 100% bonk. I did have a new pain in my legs that I never experienced but never did the thought, "I can't do this" creep into my head and from what I understand about bonking, that's a big part of the whole ordeal.
One unhealthy thing I do have to mention though is that men should always, always, always wear something over their nips. I mentioned this fear in my Patrick Henry post:
Now I have never had the pleasure of severe chafing or bloody nips but those are experiences I plan on living life without.For some crazy reason, I thought that body glide was going to be enough but around the halfway point I experienced insane chafing. So bad, that I feared I was going to finish up with the bloody nip run of shame. I decided that I still did not want any part of that club so I stopped for bandaids along the way. Imagine my time if I had those 5 minutes back!
So I finished and I'm completely fine. I even ran a mile the very next day. It wasn't pretty, but I did it anyways. I tried to drag Ate Joy out with me but she ducked me by taking a nap on the couch.
I'm thankful for all the new friends I met in the process.
One of the reasons that I decided to do the marathon was because of the Joy Run challenge. But that was not the main reason. I needed to get out of the house. I was (and still do) working from home and despite what everyone thinks ("That's awesome!") it can be a rather isolating experience (It is pretty awesome most of the time though). This combined with the fact that my wife has been working an insane schedule the past couple of years and I could see my sanity slowly slip away. There would be stretches for more than 24 hours where I would go without any human interaction. Some people like this kind of thing but not me!
Training for a marathon was the perfect thing to get me out of the house. I met so many wonderful people just from running! Who would have thought?! And a lot of them have become good friends. Which is reasonable considering that we've just spent the last six months running 700+ miles together while spilling our guts to each other in the process. Man! There's quite a number of people out there now who have some pretty good dirt on me.
I'm thankful for the new challenges that have presented themselves.
So this is the main reason why I've been MIA. Not only did I drop off of blogosphere because of the preparing and recuperating from the marathon but because I've started triathlon training. Yup! In the past couple of weeks I've bought a bike, did three spin sessions, been in the pool at least eight times, endured several strength classes, and sprinkled in a couple of runs. Oh and I threw in surfing, basketball, and football just for good measure. Its been great! I'm positive that it expedited my recovery from the marathon. Although, when I tried to wake up this morning for a run I decided to stay in bed because my body felt like it had just gotten hit by a truck.
Well Ate Joy already posted some pics from the event but she forgot to post mine! She sent me her favorites and here they are:
