Post Marathon – Final Thoughts

I did it. Holy shit. I ran 42.2 km and I didn’t die.
I can’t lie – I am disappointed with my time. Based on my training I should have come in at least half an hour earlier. But it’s been a learning experience and if I decide to do it again I will kill it.
I was hoping that running an October marathon meant it would be colder than it was. The heat really messed with my body, and I couldn’t even take in my carbs on the course because I felt so nauseated.
I have done a lot of laundry over the past six months. Running and working out five to six days each week means I had a lot of sweaty clothes to wash.
The worst part of a long run is getting undressed. Seriously. There is nothing more disgusting that literally peeling your drenched clothing off of your sweaty body to get into the shower.
Also, after 20+ kilometers trying to get out of a sports bra is like a marathon in itself.
I’ve never had “nice” looking feet, but blisters and callouses have definitely not helped.
But, thankfully, I didn’t lose any toenails! Honestly, this was my biggest fear.
Switching to morning workouts gave me so much more free time. I wish I had started them before I was seven weeks out.
Taper Madness is real and it’s scary.
I couldn’t have done this without my mom. She helped kick my butt at the end of at least three long-runs and was my cheerleader the entire 23 weeks.
She once brought me band-aids mid-run because of the fore-mentioned blisters.
Also, she met me at the last 500m and it took everything in me to not cry. I felt like I was having an asthma attack because I was so tired and trying not to sob. Her support was incredible.
And to: my sister, Kyla, boyfriend, Michael, best friend, Brittany, and social media soulmate, Lauren… your well wishes meant more to me than you will ever know. When I wanted to give up I hung onto your words and they kept my legs moving.
I’m going to have so much free time now that I’m not running for 2-4 hours and following up with an hour-long nap.
I’m going to miss when my FitBit tells me after I log my long run that I have 3000+ calories to eat.
I’m jumping into a “quick” six-week training plan for a faster 5K. I’m doing the Santa Shuffle on December 2nd and I think it’ll be a nice way to come out of training.
Otherwise, I’m not sure what my next “big” goal will be. So far I’ve thought about: another marathon while setting a time-goal, Around the Bay 2018, a Spartan Race, a triathlon, or dropping back to the half-marathon and getting an official PR. I guess time will tell.