FAQ's

Hello again! Things are slowly returning to semi-normal, so I have a few minutes to share some further thoughts on my marathon experience. Here are the questions I have heard most frequently over the past few days:

1. How are you feeling?

Good! Physically, I was super-sore and tired the afternoon/evening of the marathon. I went to bed around 7:30pm, which took care of the tiredness, but not the soreness. Monday morning, I got up with my usual 5:30am alarm to go to Group Power (my weightlifting class), but quickly realized there was no way I could do squats or lunges and went back to bed. When I got up again (which took a good 10 minutes), I took some Advil and went for a sports massage. That helped immensely. Tuesday morning, I woke up feeling much better and went to Group Power, where I had some kind of adrenaline surge and actually added weight. That class seemed to work the rest of the stiffness out. I did GP again Wednesday along with a 1-mile walk, and I went to my boot camp class this morning. So, all in all, my physical recovery has been quite easy. 

Mentally, I'll admit that I had mixed feelings the day of the marathon. When I started training, I had really hoped to run the whole thing. I think I was on track to do that before I got appendicitis and went back to school. The appendicitis knocked me out for two really important long run weeks, and returning to school cut my weekday training time in half. Even with those setbacks, I had hoped to walk less than I did. So, on the day of the race, I was a little dissapointed, as I always am when I have to walk in a race. By the next morning, though, I was pretty much over it. Even with all of the training, there was really no way I could have known what a marathon would be like until I did one. Now that I have, I have a much better idea of what I'll need to do to prepare for the next one. Which brings us to the next question...

2. Will you run another marathon?

Yes, I think I will. I would like to actually run one start to finish, and there are a couple "destination" races I would love to do when I no longer have a full-time job and a full-time course schedule. No concrete plans yet, though, which brings us to...

3. What are you going to do now? 

A few things. I have 3 or 4 shorter races left in 2010 (including one this coming Saturday). In 2011, I'll probably run many of the same races I did in 2010. These include the Striders' Champ Series. I'll also be joining the Striders' half-marathon training group in January for my second year. I do not know whether I will do a second year with the marathon training group; that all depends on what my work situation is next summer.   

The really exciting news is that I am doing at least two triathlons in the coming year! The first will be a run-bike-canoe triathlon that my crazy ultra-running friends have incorporated into their wedding in April. Seriously. My friend Pat and I will be doing this as a 2-person team with me on the run, him on the bike, and both of us in the canoe. We will be joined by other wedding teams, including the bride with the groom and the bride's father with the minister. I am also DJ'ing the wedding, which means that I have to finish this race at all costs! 

The second triathlon will be the Columbia IronGirl event in  August. This is a regular swim-bike-run sprint distance event. Should be an adventure. As a kid, I was a really strong swimmer and good on a bike, but I haven't done either (aside from spin class) in years. At this point, I don't even own most of the equipment I need, so I'm slowly buying one thing at a time. Right now, I have a swimsuit, goggles, and a helmet. There is a lot left to obtain- most importantly, a decent bike.

4. What did you learn from this?

So many things, but there are two big ones: 

First, that I have amazing people in my life. Throughout this whole process, I have been amazed and overwhelmed at how many people have taken an interest in my training, fundraising, and race. For the last 6 months, it has felt like everyone in every little corner of my life has known and cared about this. I truly did not expect that, and I will never forget it.  

Second, that I have more courage and more determination than I realized. Throughout my life, I have always been a bit of a risk-taker and I have always been pretty dogged in pursuing the things I decide to do. At the same time, I tend to play to my strengths. For example, it was a risk applying to Yale. Still, academics is where I excel, so I knew I had a decent chance of success.

For me, deciding to run a marathon was a much bigger risk than applying to Yale. Athletics is not my area of strength. As a kid, I consistently missed straight A's because I got B's in gym. A year ago, I had never run more than 3 miles and I had only done that a few times. Every step in the build-up to this race- joining the gym, joining the Striders, signing up for progressively longer races- was a leap of faith. I honestly did not know if I would be able to do this, and failure terrifies me (I'm an overachiever to the core). So, I'm proud of myself for even giving this a shot, and I think this is going to help me be even more courageous in other areas of my life.

As far as determination goes, I think everyone has seen some of that. Obviously, I had some major setbacks in the process of training for this race (hello, appendix!). I am proud of myself for pushing through those, but I'm more proud about the smaller acts of focus and discipline I had to do on a daily basis. I have a very, very busy life and I have often used that as an excuse to neglect my physical health. A little over a year ago, I finally let that excuse go, and started doing what I needed to do to be healthy. If you had told me 18 months ago that I would be working out at 6am 4-5 times a week, and that I would often put in another hour in the evenings, I would have laughed in your face. But that's what I've done, and the payoffs have been unbelievable. This training has definitely reminded me that nothing is impossible if you just put your mind to it and do the work.

All in all, this has been an unforgettable experience and I know that its just the beginning of more amazing things to come!