The Aftermath

So. After diligently training for 18+ weeks, what does one DO after completing a marathon?

Well, for starters, they do a lot of fist pumping and walk around BEAMING. And pretty much just remain in that fog of excitement for the next week or so.

i may be in severe pain. but im too happy about that sub-4 to notice.

After posing for many photos with your friends and family who cheered you on in the chute, you then dictate a few strict orders–you need 2 bottles of water, one bottle of Gatorade and a banana–STAT, but the banana has to be kept out of sight and out of mind until the vom-feeling goes away (turns out, that will be an hour or two LATER).

You get giddy over the sight of stairs and pace up and down them as much as possible.

You walk in circles among a very crowded post-marathon party in the park while your friends and family reconvene and make plans for the post-race celebration back at your parents house.

After doing squats in the parking garage elevator, and severe muscle tightening on the car ride home, you nearly fall flat on your face while walking into the house because your legs have momentarily turned to jello. But you remind yourself how good the stairs felt only 30 minutes before, and climb them to go shower off the massive amounts of sweat and salt.

Then you spend a few hours chugging water, munching on the massive piles of delicious food your family made and fruit bouquets they ordered.

so pretty you don't really want to eat it. except for the fact that for a good hour or two, fruit was the only thing i could stand the thought of consuming.

After fielding many congratulatory phone calls, retelling the entire experience a few times over, and having many mental battles with your body over whether you should nap for a “few minutes” or power through and continue enjoying the company of people you’re hanging with, you finally decide on the first option. And pour yourself that long-awaited glass of vino.

there are no two things that would make me happier to be holding than what you see right here kids.

I’ve heard stories of people finishing their first, second, fifth and 23rd marathon and rocking out until the wee hours of the night.

Those people really ARE crazy. I passed out HARD on Saturday night. However, aside from one early-morning stair encounter (well, and some continued dehydration which I’m sure the wine didn’t help), I felt surprisingly okay on Sunday morning. Yes, of course I was tight and achy (still am), but all post-marathon pain-inflicting horror stories considered, I felt pretty darn good (and still do).

So when my very awesome family suggested that we spend the afternoon in the great outdoors of the beautiful mountains of Charlottesville, I was in!

No, we were not hiking. Again, I’m not crazy.

We were picnicking and sipping more sweet goodness at Kluge…known now as Trump Winery.

pay no attention to the fact that i look like a girl who ran 26.2 miles after something like 3 hours of sleep. and just know that it was a super pretty vineyard and an awesome dayafteramarathon thing to do!

Afterwards we also stopped at the bottom of Carter Mountain at an apple orchard, where though the apples were no longer in season, there were at least beautiful views to enjoy and lots of yummy fall treats, such as hot apple cider and homemade apple and pumpkin donuts.

dear virginia, i love you.

a lot.

From there it was catching a plan back to the Big Apple. While I missed having the JD in Richmond with me for this epic weekend, I think this is where I missed him the most. Traveling solo after such an adrenaline rush of a weekend was a little strange and slightly uncomfortable. Too quiet. Too somber. I was already missing the marathon, and the cheer squads. And as much as I wanted to tell every stranger passing by me at RCA that I had just run a marathon and wait for them to jump up and down and be giddy and full of questions, I had to refrain. Mostly because I knew it wouldn’t reap the desired results.

Luckily, that feeling didn’t last too long because the flight from Richmond is super short. And before I knew it, I was looking down on this:

hello you sexy, city you. get ready. im ready to run you next november.

I’ll now spend the next six months missing my Richmond marathon, the six months after that preparing to tackle New York. And on and off over the course of that entire year, be itching to sign up for another 26.2.

Holy Marathon Weekend

I’ve got my own marathon weekend coming up in just four short days. But before I bore you with my anxiety over that, let’s back up so I can recap the adrenaline rush I’m still riding from a marathon I didn’t run [yet]…the ING NYC Marathon.

I made an entire weekend out of this event–or at least, running in general. As you know, it all kicked off on Thursday afternoon when I went to the expo at Jacob Javits Center. I came home with lots of goodie bags filled with free treats and bangin’ good dollars spent.

On Friday, I made my way down to David’s Bridal and ordered a beautiful pool blue dress for one of my best friends forthcoming weddings, and spent the rest of the afternoon “crosstraining”…read: walking all over Manhattan. I was given out more marathon freebies in midtown, in the shape of a bright orange cowbell and racecourse maps. Hot dog! And as a last-Friday-of-Freedom splurge, I treated myself to Rice to Riches. I’d been intrigued by this 16 Handles of rice pudding for quite sometime now, and holy moly, was I impressed with what I found. I never thought I’d see the day when I found somewhere to give my froyo mecca a run for its money, but this rando-ricepuddin’ shop did the trick. I wasn’t even sure I liked rice pudding when I went in, and I came out completely in love. Especially with the espresso chocolate chip flavor. Ladies and gents, do yourself a big favor and go here…NOW.

From Spring Street I scurried home for my last night of working at the restaurant. No exciting details to share there, except I made a nice chunk of moolah for my farewell shift, did a quick clicking of the heels and headed home. Things got awesome once I got there, because I had an awesome piece of mail waiting for me from my cousin, whom recently left me for Chicago. Big sad face. But even from there, she’s an awesome cheerleader, and her card said something along the lines of “CongratsongettingthroughyourmarathontrainingandgoodluckonyourveryfirstmarathonandIknowyou’llkickass” and some other sappy/super nice things. Bottom line: my cousin kicks ass.

I went to bed happy. And on Saturday morning I finally got my butt out of bed for an “early” a.m. run (early only in comparison to the times I was running while in the restaurant world) with Katherine, Ashley and Kristine. These lovely ladies were kind enough to cross over from the east side so we could all head south along the Hudson River together. We all had different distances planned for the day, but banged out a big chunk of them together from 34th street down to Battery Park, South Ferry and the Brooklyn Bridge. I stopped at about 10 miles right under the bridge and u-turned to find a train back uptown. Once home, I was greeted by another marathon-inspired surprise, this time from the JD:

hello pretty flowers. that match fall foliage. that colors the richmond marathon course.

Have I mentioned how great my boyfriend is? Because he’s pretty effin great.

After admiring my flowers, I inhaled some delicious coffee, showered and headed out for another delightful NYC day with the boy.

We went shopping for fancy work clothes–me for the new job, and the JD just because Afterwards we caught an early movie (50/50 with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gorden Levitt–both funny and touching, highly recommended) at the Loew’s at Lincoln Center (which may be my new favorite NYC theater) followed by dinner at Cleopatra’s Needle. I’d been dying to try this place for a while simply because I liked the name of it. I liked the name of it even more when I learned it was shared with the mini-Washingtonmonumentlookalike in Central Park.

what's that? dc is too far a run? fine. i'll get a glimpse of my monument in central park.

Unfortunately, while the restaurant has a swanky fun name, and some decent mediterranean fare, I don’t think I’ll be making a return. Not quite enough bang for the buck in my opinion, but there was some fun jazz music, and it was the first time in a long time the JD and I were able to squeeze in a datenight. So, success all around.

And then came Sunday. Oh, Sunday. Because of the time change I literally woke up  like a kid on Christmas morning–super early and super giddy. I was annoyed that marathon coverage wasn’t starting until 9 a.m., but got over that disappointment rather quickly, as PBS was repeating the Fred Lebow movie “Without Limits” over and over again. I only got to see a few minutes of it before switching back over to NBC, but anything marathon related was okay in my book.

I had originally anticipated going for a short run or making a return to the gym (oh by the way, my NYSC membership is BACK BABY!) before suiting up to cheer on friends actually running the race, but the elites got the best of me and I was literally glued to the TV for 2 hours. Never in my life would I have thought watching people run on TV could keep my attention, much less for such a long span of time. But kids, I was ENTHRALLED. Eventually, I managed to pull myself away and head over to first ave, where the JD and I were meeting up with some fellow cheerers. As soon as we got off the subway on Lex I could feel the change in the air, and once we hit 3rd ave, I could see the crowds in the distance. By the time we made it over to first, I was ecstatic.

We were easily able to find our friends as the ran by, and stopped for some sweaty hugs and well wishes. From there, our group traveled down the east side of the park toward Mickey Mantles where we popped in for a quick drink (well, they sipped, I dutifully abstained) because you know, spectating can be a tough job!

After hydrating we went right back out to the crowds to cheer our friends on as they came down around mile 25, the cowbells were ringing and the Mr and Mrs were smiling and going strong (I have an amazing picture to prove it, but not sure on their thoughts on sharing with the internet world)! We screamed and yelled and cowbelled for them to keep on going, and once we knew they had it in the bag moved down to Faces and Names to wait for them. Once the achy but happy couple made it in, I pulled up a seat to congratulate them and immediately set in on their thoughts, feelings, advice and any other peep they could muster on marathoning. It was the mister’s first-ever race (his wife was on her 5th), so I was thrilled to learn that he loved every second of it, said it was the most amazing experience ever and that he had no doubt I’d feel the same come Saturday.

(Provided that’s true, and I don’t end up LOATHING 26.2….ING NYC Marathon, I’ll see YOU next year!)

We stayed in midtown munching on delicious pub-food and talking running for a few hours before heading home. I finally pushed the thought of a workout out of my head and instead focused all of my attention on making some peanutbutteroatfudgies–a recipe recently sent to me by my mother. With the marathon four days away, and my first day of work at the new job a few hours away (well, now its more like 40 minutes), peanut butter goodness seemed the best line of defense against all anxious thoughts and jittery feelings.

So with that FINALLY said. I’m off to the first day on the new job. Followed (hopefully) by a return to my favorite NY gym so I can zone out for a few more hours. And once I get home tonight, I may have a nervous breakdown.

Happy happy Monday kids!

It’s in the Air

Manhattan is buzzing with all-things marathon this week. And it is awesome. Even for someone NOT running the ING NYC marathon. I can’t help but get completely caught up in the excitement–and get pumped for my friends running the boroughs on Sunday, and for my own marathon less than a week later.

In fact, that excitement carried me down to the Jacob Javits Center yesterday afternoon for a little expo action. Hey, it’s open to the public!

hiya, expo. next year, i hope to visit you as a nyc marathon runner. not spectator.

The expo provided me with a lunch of freebies–powerbar samples, Gatorade chews, Odwalla protein shakes–you name it, I tried it. But worry–I did not make a name for myself as a spectating freeloader. I tried those samples, and then I opened up the wallet and stocked up for my own marathon needs:

those little oatmeal raisin powerbar balls may be the best thing ive ever eaten. go try them.

words can't describe how happy i am about this purchase

I stocked up on lots of running fuel–both because it’s important to have while running, and because it was all delicious.

I also purchased some new Brooks running gloves after having lost mine during a random McDonald’s bathroom break last winter. These are amazing gloves for so many reasons. They are reflective, have mitten covers to shield the wind, and are super warm and comfy. A must have for winter running!

After the expo I decided I wanted to squeeze in a quick shakeout run after Wednesday night’s 12-miler. I have been reading that it’s important to do practice runs in your race day gear. Since the JD can’t make it to Richmond for Race Day (sad face), I definitely want to race in the shirt he had made for me, so yesterday I suited up in my marathonwiner/Richmondmarathon tee and went for an easy jog down Central Park West.

the crazy/terrified look on my face is due to the fact that the next time i rock this shirt will be marathon morning. eeks!

As it turns out, this shirt is good luck! Well, whether or not it’s good luck as far as crossing the finish line after 26.2 miles is yet to be told, but it I was wearing it during my first-ever, legitimate NYC celeb siting! While cruising down CPW in the 80′s yesterday I SAW ALEC BALDWIN! Holy bigtime siting. If there is a celeb to see in NY, I can’t imagine a better one than that! And perhaps the greatest part of the entire event was that I kept my cool–didn’t get all googly-eyed and trip and fall on my face. I’ll take that as a win!

After my star-studded run I was super late to my second-to-last shift at the restaurant. After a considerably uneventful night there I came home and stalked the internet for more marathon tips, tricks and other reads. It was then, that I stumbled upon one of many lovely little articles that talks the big 5 marathon courses (Boston, NY, Chicago, London and Berlin) and read this little gem:

The toughest: New York

The London, Berlin and Chicago marathon courses are all almost completely flat. Boston has its famous Wellesley Hills, but the course is a net downhill and it has hosted some pretty fast times. The toughest course among the Marathon Majors is New York’s. It features three significant hills and a lot of small ups and downs. And cruelly, the toughest part of the course is the end, where tired runners are slammed by the rolling slopes of Central Park.

This was a big confidence boost for me, because taper time has made me feel slow, undertrained and undermileaged (yes, I just made that word up). And even though I may have blacked out during it, I must remember that I DID in fact, run 18 miles through the “rolling slopes of Central Park.” And if those same slopes help dub that one of the trickiest marathon courses in the world, than I feel so happy and proud to have them under my belt. And I hope, hope, hope, that means I’m ready for Richmond on November 12th.

Today I will try everything in my power TO NOT RUN. And to fully take a rest day (even though I’ve still got runner’s guilt over two rest days in a row last Saturday and Sunday). I’ve got a trip to David’s Bridal (don’t get excited, it’s for a bridesmaid dress and not a wedding dress) and piles of laundry to hopefully distract me until MY LAST SHIFT AT THE RESTAURANT tonight. Then its a weekend full of running with friends (Katherine, let’s talk about tomorrow–and anyone else who wants to join) and watching friends run in the 2011 ING NYC Marathon on Sunday. Good luck out there runners!!!

Have an awesome weekend kids!

- And as always, I’m getting boring with my questions/requests. But any and all last-week-of-taper advice is more than welcome!