Recovery thoughts and running on

This last marathon was by far my slowest. I also seem to have come out of it feeling better than the first two. Go figure.

Even with less training than the first two (not that I recommend a longest run of 15 miles in training), just adding the extra half hour to the finish time seems to have made a big difference. Though, the weather helped, as well as getting plenty of in-run nutrition. At any rate, I had no injuries, no blisters, nothing really except sore muscles mostly in my quads (front upper part of thigh).

The day AFTER was by far the worst day for soreness. By Monday afternoon I could go up and down stairs without using the railing, and today I feel like I could go out for a jog. I probably won't, but I likely will tomorrow or Friday.

And... I am kinda/sorta entertaining the idea of doing another marathon in November. About 30 miles away is a Veterans Marathon on November 14. They are actually having it in-person. I will see how it goes, but I wouldn't mind giving it a shot. It will depend on how long runs go between then and now. We'll see.

I kind of have this halfway "goal" of doing twenty marathons over twenty years. I was thinking one per year. I have no problem counting last weeks, but it wasn't really "official." I guess I hadn't even thought it possible to do more than one a year. Until now.

All in all though, I'm pretty happy with the recovery from this marathon. Race day was 'race day.' Sunday was really sore. Monday just kind of tired (plus we had a pretty busy weekend other than the run). And Tuesday... I'm feeling okay! I can dig it.

It would be nice to be able to run faster, but there's really no need for me to. I will never be competing for prizes, or even trying to qualify for Boston or anything. Maybe I should just be a 5-6 hour marathoner and be happy with that. I mean, what's the point of doing it if I can't at least get some joy out of it??

[The pic is my favorite roller. I finally rolled out my thighs and calves yesterday and it felt pretty good. I also use it on my feet.]

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 "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:24)