Post Marathon Aftermath!

In hindsight I regret running the full distance in training. Everyone says don't do it, but I did. I wasn't ready and I got injured. Any psychological advantage I was hoping to gain by knowing 'I've already done this' was totally outweighed by worrying about the injuries I was carrying.

But more than that I feel I 'wasted' the sense of achievement. The big moment of realising my long standing goal happened on my own, unwitnessed at an arbitrarily chosen point by the River Trent. I walked to the tram and went home. When I crossed the line at the Leicester Marathon there was relief and the joy of seeing my family, but no sense of a milestone because I'd already achieved my goal several weeks earlier.

Injuries not withstanding I think I was wrong to take so long off running after the marathon. I think I would have recovered a lot quicker to go out jogging 1k and stretching more.

I still suspect there's a lot of snake oil around gels and sports drinks. I followed the advice but I think I might get the same results with bacon, bananas, water and some real food. Probably my slow pace makes this less of an issue though.

The online approval is quite addictive. For most of the year I'd not mentioned my diet and when anyone asked me if I'd lost weight I'd just say “well I've lost a bit cos I'm hoping to do a marathon”. But raising money for Dan's medical bills forced me to a) do a full marathon and b) go public in the worst kind of way. But now that pimping myself for cash-monies is done there's a little needy hole in my life that's not getting fed with Facebook likes. But it's good for the soul to keep things on the down low. (So here I am putting it online!!!!)

I still want to do an Ultra-marathon next year but now I feel very mortal. It's not just a matter of adding more and more miles.

This all sounds a bit down but it's not. I ACHIEVED MY GOAL! Now I just want to make sure it's not a 'one-off'.