Post-BQ thoughts and post-race body beatdown

I have had 2 weeks since my BQ to think about how the perfect storm made my race possible.  The short list

-First-Loopfest-awesome-mojo

-Completed EVERY training run with better-than-goal paces

-Zero injuries and very little niggles (I chalk this up to decent genetics and running only 4X a week topping out at 40 miles)

-The power of believing in myself

-Good weather. Despite the wind, it was comfortably cold and dry. And since it monsooned the day before and snowed the day after, I'd say I completely lucked out.

-Great course. Super duper flat, where have you been all my running life?!

-Support from my #1 fan, Adam. I'm lucky to have a non-running spouse who gets giddy for my crazy hobby and gives me well wishes to spend a weekend in Delaware with random internet strangers.

I thought long and hard about how my Garmin crashing probably was a good thing for me in the race. I think if I had known how much time I had to spare (hey, 2 minutes and 6 seconds is a lot when it hurts), I might have allowed myself to slow down in the final miles. I could have left something on the table because of it.

Because I ran my first marathon in just over 4 hours only a few short years ago, I am still kind of in disbelief that I actually accomplished what I set out to do.

On that note, what's next while I wait for fall to loll around and names drawn for Boston 2015?

I am running the Georgia Marathon in March 2014.  This will be the 5th year I've run it. It's super hilly so I could potentially go for a course PR, but I definitely will not be aiming to topple my Rehoboth run. I will start official training the first week of January.

After that? I am likely going to do The Flying Pig in May--still working on twisting Adam's arm to join me on a lovely weekend in Cincy. If I race the full, I might as well find another full to fun run to go for Maniac status right??!  Not sure if I can squeeze all this in since my sister is getting married in April, but I will certainly entertain ideas as they fester in my brain.

I haven't run too much since I finished Rehoboth.  I ran 3 miles on the Thursday following, 8 miles last Sunday:

I was on track this week with 7 on Tuesday and 10 on Thursday...but got steamrolled again yesterday. More on that momentarily.


 First, I got into a one-person car wreck with a highway median on the Monday following the marathon. Not even 48 hours had passed.  I hydroplaned on a three-lane highway in the far right lane, did a 360 into the median on the far left side, and managed to just smoosh the bejeezus out of my car.

Fortunately, I didn't sustain any injuries, although my body was so wrangled from running a marathon it was hard to tell. I was kind of an emotional mess about the whole thing. It was pretty scary and after my rockin' weekend, I was having trouble processing it all.  Adam fortunately helped me negotiate the insurance stuff, the car rental, and eventually the process of buying a new-to-me car.

We made good use of the rental car for the week we had it:

And a week after the wreck, Adam met me at my work with a Jeep Liberty:

In the middle of this car-wrangling business, we had a ton of other things going on besides the normal toil of working 40 hours a week during holiday retail time.

We went Christmas tree shopping and decorated the house inside and out:

Adam's birthday was Sunday and we celebrated at his favorite Hibachi place followed up with "Catching Fire" at the movies:

I baked like a boss on Monday night to get my Secret Santa present out in time. Leftovers went to work:

I finished Christmas shopping and started wrapping presents. I ran errands like a crazy person on Thursday, ran 10 miles (at a 7:47 pace), and came home and crashed for 3 hours. The sickness had taken hold.

If we back up this story to the week of the marathon, I will admit that I went to the Minute Clinic at CVS (my favorite in-and-out not-too-serious-diagnosis place to go in lieu of my doctor) on the Tuesday prior to the race. I had sinus pain and sniffles and was super paranoid about having a full blown sinus infection on race day. I was prescribed doxycycline for a week. By the end of Thursday, I was feeling much better and although I was still taking the meds as prescribed, I had pretty much forgotten I felt bad.

I came back from Rehoboth feeling hoarse-voiced and slightly beaten. But hey, I BQ-ed and celebrated hard. Had the car wreck and then the body pain started to subside. The hoarse voice lingered, but was just more annoying than troublesome. I guess I started to feel worse on Tuesday, but I was trying to "run it out". Wednesday, I was talking to a customer and had to excuse myself to hack in the office in private because I was coughing so hard my eyes turned red.  Still, I forged on and did my crazy Thursday errands-and-run-10-miles.

Yesterday, I could have paid someone to take my spot at work. But we were running a huge promotion and I felt terrible if I didn't at least try to make it through the day. I felt like absolute death and I had multiple cough attacks that landed me crouched in the bathroom. Oy! I ended up leaving an hour early and after an unsuccessful trip to the Minute Clinic, I went straight to bed.

Today, I finally got seen again and they prescribed me some heavier duty antibiotic. I slept for most of the day, drank lots of fluids, and rested. The only productive thing I did was firm up my Christmas Day menu and make a shopping list for it.

The furkids kept me company: