October 22, 2012

Post-marathon glory

I have been basking in post-marathon relief ever since I crossed the finish line yesterday. It feels SO GOOD to be done, and to have finished with a good experience!

When I got home yesterday, I saw that my boys had made signs for us while we were gone:
This one is Eli's. Those are flowers, and a cookie, and a picture of me running
and him holding a sign that says "Go Mama Go"

This one is Noah's. Flowers, a cookie, and even my blog address ;)
Aren't they adorable?

I immediately took a shower to wash all the salty sweat off my skin, and I felt a thousand times better. I put on some cozy pants and my new sweatshirt that I bought at the Expo, and sat to write my race report. While I was typing, I had one of the treats that Rik brought with him from Wisconsin--a peanut butter cup from a sweets shop near his house.

Saturday was the last day of my six-week challenge of not eating peanut butter, so yesterday was fair game. It was fantastic! I savored every bite of it. I think I forgot to mention that I also had one with breakfast before the race yesterday. I've definitely missed peanut butter, but I don't plan on going crazy with it now that the challenge is over.


After I typed up my blog post, Rik, Cynthia, and Angela came over to celebrate with me. As they were coming in, I heard someone say "Congrats!" and I looked up with shock--it was my brother Brian and his girlfriend Becky! I was so happy to see them--Brian wasn't able to come in for my race, but I think it was even better that he could come celebrate afterward. Apparently everyone knew he was coming but me--I was definitely surprised, and very excited.

My little brother Nathan came over as well, and then my mom, so we had a full house. We ordered a ton of pizza and breadsticks, and had plenty of beer to go around. We also had some of the snacks Rik and Cynthia brought--cheese and sausage (yum!) and the cookie cake from Angela that I was dying to dive into.

I ate two pieces of pizza, two breadsticks, a piece each of cheese and sausage, and a big slice of cookie cake. My mom brought over apple pie and ice cream, but I was pretty full and didn't have any of that. A couple of hours later, I had a second piece of the cookie cake, and I didn't feel the least bit guilty about it. I also had 4 beers (they were the Labatt 52 calorie beers, so they probably don't even count as "real" beer, haha) and a glass of wine.

Renee and Jessica came over, and they brought me some yummy (yet healthy) treats--I was actually relieved to see something healthy after the tempting stuff I'd had. Renee brought some homemade soup, cookies, and wine; and Jessica brought a fruit tray--tons of grapes and strawberries. (Yes, I'm still hooked on grapes). Then Stephanie came over, and brought me a bottle of wine as a "thank you" for giving her my spot on Jessica's relay team! (I have some pretty awesome friends).Their team did really well, finishing in 4:20 ish. It was fun to visit with them for a little while and hear about the experience from their views.

I actually wrote everything down and tallied up the PointsPlus I ate through the whole day, and it was 99. I get 26 daily PP, so I used those and all of my weekly PP and most of my activity PP. (I had earned 29 PP during the marathon, based on the calories burned). I didn't feel like I went overboard--I wasn't completely stuffed or anything--but those PP added up quickly! The cookie cake was the heftiest amount of PP, which is no surprise.

But every single bite was totally worth it. And I didn't even get off track. I wrote everything down, and today I am right back to "normal" eating. Angela, Rik, and Cynthia all left this morning, so I am back into my routine.

My legs have felt pretty good today, surprisingly. I'm definitely sore, but nothing unbearable. My knee feels uninjured (yay!!) and I can sit and stand okay :) It felt so strange this morning that I didn't have to run--this is the first Monday in 18 weeks that I haven't had a run on the schedule.

As far as running plans in the future, I'm probably going to take a full week off, and then start training again a week from today. I have a 5K race in NYC on November 3rd, but I am just running that for fun, so there is no pressure (it will be too crowded to try and PR anyway). Then the next race after that will be the Ragnar Relay Florida Keys on January 4-5.

I'm not going to do any formal training for it, but mostly just run how it's comfortable to me--what I used to enjoy doing before marathon training. I'll probably do 3-4 runs per week: one long run, one speedwork run, and one or two short, easy runs. I think as long as I get in a long run of about 10 miles every so often, I should be fine for Ragnar.

I am starting to carefully plan and think about races for next year. I don't want to do a lot of races--I just want to pick ones that are really important to me, and focus on those without doing a bunch of others "just because". I don't even care about getting faster anymore--if I was focused on speed yesterday, to try and hit a 4:20 or 4:30 time, I would have missed some awesome moments that made the race enjoyable to me: looking around and enjoying the sunrise while I was on the Ambassador Bridge; running and chatting with my cousin Kaitlin, and Jessica; stopping for a minute to stretch my calves to make the race more comfortable; high-fiving kids and spectators along the course; and having lots of conversation with Rik.

I am definitely more concerned with having a fun, enjoyable race than I am with focusing on a certain finish time now. So that will come into play when I choose my races for next year as well.

Looking back on yesterday's race, everything went perfectly, and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. Yes, it was still very tough, but I don't think it's possible for a marathon to be "easy". I enjoyed it the best that I could in the circumstances :) And I got to eat two pieces of cookie cake!

16 comments:

  1. I"m so glad you had such a good time and can put your marathon dream to rest(?). And the 5k is on November 3rd! Less than 2 weeks away!

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  2. It sounds like a much better experience than last time! Glad you got to enjoy yourself afterwards :)

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  3. So glad you had a much better experience this time! Congratulations on meeting your goals too (with the marathon...and peanut butter)!

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  4. Congratulations on a job well done!! Keep telling your amazing story!

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  5. Well done and congratulations on a race well run! It certainly was a beautiful day for running through Detroit. And I absolutely agree about that magical sunrise off the Ambassador Bridge. Nothing better than the feeling of being clean and resting after the big day!

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  6. That's awesome. I'm so excited you had such a great experience this time, especially after how tough the last one was!

    I have to say that as I get older and wiser as a runner - being the speediest is getting less important and making it meaningful and enjoyable much more…. not to say that I can't change my mind on that but for right now, that's how I'm feeling :)

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  7. I didn't know Labatts 52 existed. I will have to search it out! Good job! How awesome! I don't know that I will ever run a marathon. But I think I would like to do a half (I want that 13.1 sticker!). :)

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  8. Did you eat the piece with the shoe? I totally would've been cutting the middle out for it. LOL!

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  9. Congrats on your race! I love the signs your kids made, so cute!

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  10. I was at the hospital all day with family members and when I got home I just HAD to check to see if you updated! I wasn't disappointed!

    I think it's really cool that there is a marathon in October, let alone other races in November and January! Up here in Alberta it's frigid already and contemplating going for a walk outside make me shiver!

    I hope you enjoyed your PB!

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  11. I think you should get a free-pass on the PP ... you ran a freakin' marathon! ;) There should be that option button under the exercises or something!

    Congratulations again and enjoy your week off!

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  12. Wow, I'm totally impressed with your discipline to count the WW points for what you ate AFTER RUNNING A FULL MARATHON!!! I probably would have chucked it and eaten whatever I wanted, which is never a good thing, so WAY TO GO for sticking with it!!!

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  13. WOOHOO! The marathon was a success--and isn't that's what it's all about? You want to enjoy it, or why do it? Oh I know??!! TO EAT COOKIES and COOKIE CAKES!!! Wonderful blogs about the race and party afterwards. The signs your kids made are precious. Be sure to save those somewhere, those kinds of things are so valuable after those little boys are all grown up.
    I'm betting that you don't take a whole week off from running. GO KATIE GO!!!

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  14. Congratulations on the race time, tell Jerry Congrats too. Enjoy your run free week you deserve it. And thank you for being so motivational to all who follow you.

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  15. Little kids are the best. I love that Noah put your last name on there, in case you didn't know which Noah would be cheering for you.

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  16. Hi Katie! I am the one who ran into you at the expo on Sat. in Detroit:) I would have loved to stop and chat, but it was crazy and I was with a group of girls.
    Sounds like you had a great race, Congratulations! I did the half Marathon and it was a lot of fun and a huge goal for me. I joined a choose to loose group at my YMCA last Jan. and lost 55 pounds so far. The cool think about this group is that we are all stay at home moms and after the program was over we all continued to stay together and challenge our self's. Over this last year we have all done 5K, 10k, triathlon, long distance bike tours, and now the half Marathon. It was the icing on the cake with all 12 of us there. We may not be fast, but we finish:)
    Anyways, I wanted to let you know that I started to read your blog when I started my choose to loose program and your blog seemed to help me keep on track. I felt like we had a lot in common, like being a stay at home mom, and binge eating. It was nice to have someone to relate to:) Congratulations again on your race and it was nice to run into you!
    Amy Goff

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I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

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