Post-race Reflections

It's been several days since the marathon.  The soreness is starting to slowly subside although it is taking longer than I'd like.  My legs are starting to recover but the pain from my blisters is awful!  My marathon recap was very stat-heavy what with all the splits and such so I thought I would do another post with some of my post-race thoughts.

- Full disclosure - I did get a little teary-eyed on Monday morning when my colleague/good friend asked how I felt about my race but I quickly tried to block out any feelings of disappointment.  It helped when my boss, who has ran several marathons, told me that I should keep in mind that I missed my goal by less than 1% and that running a 4:02 marathon is an amazing accomplishment.  I work with some really awesome people, by the way.

- After that little mini pity party, I have tried to shift my focus to what I accomplished. I'm so grateful that I was able to train for and finish a marathon.  When I was not able to run the Chicago marathon due to my stress fracture and RA diagnosis, I hated how the decision to run that race was taken away from me and I felt like my body betrayed me.  Now the ball is back in my court and I get to decide what activities and races I will tackle.  Having control is a big deal for a control freak like me!

- One of the best things I gained from training for this marathon was gaining a new friendship.  A new girl joined our club and we pretty much did all of our training runs together and got along super well.  I mean, you know it's a true friendship when you can run 3+ hours together multiple weekends in a row and not run out of things to talk about!  Forming friendships and bonds like that is what running is really all about for me.  Sure, we all have our personal goals that we are looking to achieve but the greatest gift of running is the many friendships I've formed and continue to form.

- Training for and running this marathon made my love for Minneapolis grow even more - as if that was even possible!  I was so excited to show John the beautiful running paths of Minneapolis and St. Paul during the marathon. Our marathon is known as the most beautiful urban marathon in the U.S. and it certainly lives up to that distinction!  I feel so lucky to live in a city with such a well developed trail system.

- To be quite honest, training for something like a marathon is a selfish pursuit. It takes many many hours and it seeps into other areas of your life since it impacts things like your sleep schedule and nutrition needs. Phil was a total trooper through the training and never complained. He provided a lot of encouragement, did some of my training runs with me, and put up with complaints about hot runs, exhaustion, and blister, among other things, and he was out there on race day cheering me on.  Knowing I would see him around mile 22 was pretty much the only thing that kept me going during the miles leading up to that.

- So the million dollar question is - "will I run another marathon?"  My answer is that I don't know.  I am not going to say I won't run another marathon but at this point I don't have any intentions to run one in the year to come.  We'll see what the future holds.  In the mean time, I'm looking forward to adding more diversity to my workout regimen.  I've got Groupons for a month at Core Power Yoga and 10 barre classes and after that, I'm thinking about getting a Class Pass membership for the winter. If I choose to not run another marathon, I know there are other fitness-related goals for me to achieve.