After-Race Glow

I just love the hours after you're done with a big race! Anyone else with me? I like the events that unfold afterwards, because you are given complete license to do whatever you want. After all, YOU just finished a long race. YOU are the height of awesome and everyone should know about it.

I think one of the first things I do is shower and put on pajamas. I don't care what time of day it is. It could be noon and I would put my pajamas back on and lounge. Of course, if I'm feeling extra lazy, I might add the bathrobe to the ensemble.

And then comes the fooding. At first, all I'll want to do is eat good stuff. I might have yet another banana, and an English muffin with peanut butter or oatmeal, or banana and strawberry smoothie. And lots of water. But as the day winds down, I'll find myself ordering pizza. I will justify this act by making sure the pizza is covered in vegetables. Amen.

Post-big race time is also good for catching up on crappy television. Because a lot of these races are on Sundays, you get to watch Sunday television, and unless there's a game on that I want to see, you get to watch fun things like The Ultimate Fighter, or movies of the week, Lifetime television, perhaps Working Girl or any other number of Harrison Ford films, and maybe a good indie movie. But of course, you pass out part way through it and wake up when your pizza arrives. Covered in vegetables.

And, you know, at some point you update your blog. But anything that requires more work than that, you just don't do. Because you don't have to...YOU just ran a half-marathon/marathon. Work is not on the list for today. When you do try to do something, like shop for groceries (I did attempt this after the mono half-marathon of May), it ends up being some sort of sordid ordeal.

Ahhhhhh post-race bliss! There's nothing like it. The only way it can possibly get better is if you have the next day off work! I nearly attempted this today, but my poor co-worker Tom has been getting ready to go to a conference, and has had sooo much work to do, that the thought of not helping out a bit made me feel extremely guilty. So I was at work today, and it ended up being a good thing because half the department was gone, so the phones were ringing off the hook. Aren't I the good little employee?

This evening's run was a recovery run, at about a 10:18 pace for 51 minutes. The weather was perfect: overcast and cool. I can only pray that the weather for Saturday's 20 miler is similar. It would be nice if the weather for the Chicago Marathon was going to be similar.

Speaking of...they announced the elite field for Chicago, and Tomescu-Dita, a.k.a The Proud New Owner of an Olympic Gold Medal will be running it. How cool is that?