My First Guest Post (No, Not Really, Don't Click Away!)

Workout: rest, until the end of time...

Okay, not really. But the Hansons have told me not to run for two weeks AFTER MY MARATHON (did I mention I ran a marathon?!) and since I have a hard time letting go, I'm still allowing them to boss me around. Also, "being smart" and all that.

Professor Amy was wondering how I spent the rest of the weekend post-race. I am nothing if not obedient (see above) so I shall oblige, but SPOILER ALERT: it's rather boring.

You see, I am not the kind of person who wants to go to brunch after a race. I don't want to talk to anyone, I don't want to celebrate. I just want to crash for hours and hours and hours, emerging from my cocoon days later when I'm fully restored/a beautiful butterfly. Or at least a few hours later.

I stayed at the race finish just long enough to pick up a shirt (it turns out finishers actually get a really nice long-sleeve technical shirt! I can't believe I bought one at the expo. Oh well, more for me!) before jetting out of there. No food, no attempt to find people I knew; I was done.

My parents were kind enough to drive me home and on the way, treated me to a Dairy Queen vanilla ice cream, my first calories after the race. That thing was heaven. Never mind the fact that it could have destroyed my insides (it didn't!); it was SO. GOOD.

That was all I got in me before passing out (okay, writing a blog post BECAUSE I'M A GOOD BLOGGER and THEN passing out), which meant I woke up many hours later half-crazed and ravenous. This meant one thing: pizza time. I got a pal to pick me up and drive us to a ("the," more like) local pizza joint, where I consumed my weight in chicken/bacon/ranch pizza. It was incredible and just what the doctor ordered. I chased my pizza with a couple of brews, although my tolerance was obviously affected by the marathon so I had to shut it down after two to avoid an overly-sloppy situation. And no, I wasn't wearing my medal. I would have liked to but I couldn't bring myself to be so open about my deep dark running secret. Plus, I would have been paranoid about people whispering about that douchebag in the corner wearing a medal.

I opted to go home straight after because I'm boring and wanted to sleep, but I ended up waking in the middle of the night going out of my mind with hunger. A bowl of cereal held me over until my morning pancakes, but I was a bit pangry for a while there.

I was pretty lazy on Sunday, as I felt was my right, but I was dragged to a dog show that was actually kind of hilarious. Also, I have a new best friend:

Jowls for miles

Sorry, make that two new best friends:

All the saggy wiener red-eyed basset hound things were wearing bonnets. I didn't get it, but I was overjoyed nonetheless.

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Amy also asked what my boss (who really did save my race) said to me at work today. Well, it was pretty much what you would expect ("Fancy seeing you out there!"), but it was fun to tell him I actually ran the marathon (he thought I was part of a four-person relay). I'm not one to insert running into every conversation so it actually only came up with one other coworker, but her constant "I can't believe you ran 26 miles" was fun.

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Finally, because Amy's basically drafted this post for me, my recovery!

My body feels great, for the most part. I was pretty sore yesterday (Sunday), but by this morning it had all but subsided. My legs feel surprisingly fresh and there's no hip/knee/shin/etc. aching whatsoever. I'm spry as a spring chicken! Well, except for my right ankle. I think the shifty gravel from miles 7-13 aggravated it because the inside wrist bone equivalent (does that even make sense?) is slightly bruised and swollen. There's some minor pain when I walk, but it's nothing major (hence, minor) and mostly goes away when I walk on it a bit. I'll definitely keep an eye on it, but I'm not too worried. And NO, COACH HOLLY, I WILL NOT RUN AGAIN UNTIL I'M COMPLETELY PAIN-FREE. I know you were worried.

It's funny how now that I've survived the race I don't really care what happens to my body. Like, come on, break everything, running gods! See if I care! Am I tempting fate here? Whatever, at least I made it to race day.

Questions:

• Do you ever experience bruising or swelling after a big race?
• What do you like to do when you're done? If I had traveled somewhere else to race I probably could have been forced to "do things," but I wouldn't have been happy about it. I like curling up in a ball for a while.
• WHAT DO I DO NOW? Just kidding. I've already got little runner thoughts swirling around in my head.