Today is my first day back running since the race. Just a little 3 miler. I swear only long distance runners say that because the instant it comes out of my mouth, I remember back when 3 miles was a huge accomplishment. And it is!!!! My left quad started hurting a bit on my run, the same one that had that shooting pain in the race, but it wasn’t injury pain, more like it is weak and tired and wants to tell me that I will finish this run, but you better take tomorrow off kind of pain. Considering it kept buckling on me up until Wednesday, I will take this as a win.
I had a splendid (delightful? fantastic? Insert your own word here) week off of running. I let my hair get greasy and frizzy. You wouldn’t think those two things go together but for my hair, they magically do. I ate all the things. I would say I was surprised at how hungry I was but I have seen myself the day after a 20 mile long run and there better be multiple pasta leftovers in my fridge. I got to shower right away when I woke up. My husband got to go to the gym without me telling him to hurry up so I can run already (I swear I’m nice most of the time).
I didn’t know how I would feel after the race. This has been my life for awhile now, so I imagined that I might feel lost. That feels like the right emotion now that the excitement has died down and the congratulations have faded. But I don’t. I feel eerily excited. I really feel like I’m just beginning this running journey of mine and I am excited to where it could take me. Like the last 10 years have just been some sort of warm up. And so this week I have been thinking about my plan. What is this summer going to look like? I can’t even tell you how excited I am to run like a normal person again. Normal not-marathon-training-trying-to-BQ-miles. Maybe 40 miles a week? Add my lovely barbell strength class back once a week, maybe 2 if I feel like giving up my beloved no-exercise Sunday day. And so I’m off again, this time with NO schedule. Feeling lighter, free.
Running on Unicorns 