Bring It.

It's been 2 and a half days since my marathon. My legs feel great. My knees feel perfect. Seems all my PT work may have paid off. Thank god. And you know what that means? It means I am back. Thank god.

Funny that I needed a marathon to prove it.

Today I am doing really well. Like I said, I am not having any real muscle soreness... which is really remarkable, given I have not been able to stretch. My biggest problem has been the horrible sunburn I have. Its made the top layer of my skin so tight and swollen that it feels like it will tear if I try to stretch. So if I were able to stretch out more right now, I am sure I would feel even better. I have been a little taken aback that my biggest hurdle in this race wound up being something I had never expected-- foot cramps. In all my training I never hit that one. It's funny, because thats probably the one hurdle I didn't hit. I think it came down to an oversight. I keep a pair of shoes always at the hotels I stay at. I keep the exact brand/style/etc and just make sure that I always have 2 pairs going... both to keep rotating shoes in and out, but also so I don't always have to take them with me. For the race, I switched the shoes and wore my hotel shoes, which for the most part I have used on shorter runs on treadmills. Never dawned on me that though they were broken in, they might not be broken in as well as the others. So by Mile 9, I was in uncharted territory with the shoes. Stupid rookie mistake. Much to my surprise, outside of that foot cramp, which at times was debilitating, the run itself was good. When I could run, I was down in the 9s... which for me is back to where I used to be. I am thrilled to feel like I am back to life before the injury. It's taken me a year and a half.

So what did I do to celebrate? I registered for the NYC Marathon on November 2. Yep... that's right. Another marathon. It's a little hard to believe, that's for sure, but here's the thing-- I remember telling myself many years ago when I first conceived (probably over a cigarette) of running a marathon, that if I ever got myself in that kind of shape, I was going to stay that way. In many ways I think I enjoy the battle-- the working my way up to something and then the game of trying to keep myself in it. There is a liberation in the conquest. And now I have a bench mark to use for improvement. And here's the thing... being out there an immersed in the battle... I just feel very alive.

If you've spent any time with me in person you've probably heard my well-worn mantra that I would rather experience all the extremes of life... the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows just to have the temperance that comes with it. I often meet people that feel like they are living in these little emotional boxes... afraid of feeling too much in one direction or another. No doubt the middle ground is easy when it comes to the low points, but the middle ground is nothing in comparison to those high flying moments. To me, the marathon embodied all of that in spades. I had a lot of low moments on that course... most notably when Marisa, Kelly and Alycen all left me after the first part of Heartbreak Hill. But that race also had some hughely high moments too... the constant cheering... the look on Tara's face... the moment when Kelly, Marisa and Patty, then Tara, and then my parents found me wrapped in my heat blanket at the end of the race. It was incredible. And for those very disparate sets of emotions, I want to be back on the road.

It's funny, I was poking around yesterday on my blog and found this old post about why I chose to become a triathlete. In many ways, I knew it was going to be a step in this direction. Maybe it will springboard me back into triathlon even more... tho to be honest, I haven't planned much for this season... I've been so laser focused on getting through Boston that now I think I might need to replan a few things. Who knows. I guess I hadn't quite counted on how much this was going to re-energize me again-- how much this would make me feel back in the game. How much this would make me want to get out there and keep running.

So yeah, November 2, 2008... marathon number 2. And off we go again.

And on that note... I need to think about maybe doing a nice chill run this evening. Cause I am ready. I just gotta get some sunscreen and a long sleeve teeshirt on me first.