Monday, March 13, 2006

The Morning After or Jack's House of Pain

This morning I woke up feeling every bit of my almost 47 years. So where did it hurt?

- The bicep muscles were tight and really sore.
- The back of my calf muscles was painful, I think the result of several Charlie horses yesterday in both feet.
- My left Achilles was tender and sore
- The tendons in my left foot were a little tender, I really felt it when I rotated my foot
- The gastrocnemius muscles (I believe) behind the knee were a bit tender.
- Both feet were a bit swollen this morning, but the swelling seems to have resided as I write (midday).
- My shoulders and the back of my neck ache a little (I think from the cold yesterday).

Now, midday, I am still a little sore in most of these areas but it’s getting better. I think I could almost manage those 10K that I missed yesterday.

My walk to the train station this morning must have been entertaining for anyone that might have noticed me. My first “obstacle” was the five steps that lead out of my house. I assure you I was awake by the time I hit the sidewalk. The 6 minute walk to the train station took 10 minutes, but felt good, it loosened up the muscles. Good thing too, the next major obstacle was the underpass, 18 steps down, 18 steps up to the other side. From there it was uneventful, thank goodness.

Mia left an outstanding comment that I think we can all learn from:

“I predict that you will not spend years worrying about what went wrong at all...you'll gnaw at it until you finish your next marathon, perhaps, but then it'll become a one line sentence to support other people who have the same experience... "Oh yeah," you'll say, "I DNF'ed once! Everybody does!" And they'll feel so much better.”

I think this is the right attitude and I’m going to run with it! I was already looking at the marathon list for September-October last night…

Comments:
You still worked hard so make sure you take time to recover.
 
Great Marathon in Chicago in October. Just a thought!! ;)
 
You seem to be recovering well, both mentally and physically. Are you still doing that 10k in 3 week's time?
 
I fall into the "don't know what to say" category, I guess. I pulled up a comment window over the weekend to respond to your race and just let it sit there in front of me for a while until something called me away from the computer. I don't know how I would respond to not being able to finish a race. As a marathoner you know what it's like to push through exhaustion and pain to complete what you started, so there's nothing to prove there. But having to stop, to have worked so hard to get to a point and then stop would be rough. But after reading your follow-up posts and thinking about my own hard race last weekend I know that you didn't stop. You're still moving forward and there will be many races to come and it's important to run each race with the understanding that the finish line is never the end. Just because you didn't reach it this time has nothing to do with where you go from here. You've made your decision to keep running strong and you'll pass many finish lines before "the race" is done.
 
Oh I love Drew's comment too. That's so right on. Feel better Jack. (When you said "I was awake by the time I 'hit' the sidewalk..." i thought you meant...you HIT the sidewalk!!!!)
 
oh, i feel your pain!

right on, mia
 
Jeez, Jack, they would have had to wheel me to work on a hand truck. You are such a star. :)
 
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