After Saturday's race, I hobbled around for hours trying to be a dad and to watch Brooke and Katie come in. Fortunately, I was able to cheer both of them on and the kids were super patient. Unfortunately, I felt like I was walking on a 95-year-old's legs the whole time. In spite of a great massage (thanks, Ivan!) at the finish, my hamstrings were still killing me and my left hip felt injured. It got worse throughout the day, and I was concerned that I was looking at another layoff due to injury. Fortunately, by the time I woke up on Sunday the real pain was gone and my legs just felt really stiff, just like they're supposed to after a hard race. I hollered in pain when I got out of the car in Fillmore for a potty break on the way home, and again when we got home, but the hip just felt stiff, not injured. As a result, I decided before going to bed last night that I'd get up and try some light jogging to warm up the legs and speed up the recovery.
For the first 400 meters or so, it felt like I had 15 people hitting my legs with sledgehammers. I almost turned around and went home. After that, though, I think the crowd thinned out and there were only 2 or 3 people swinging at me, so I decided to trudge on. I should point out that what I was doing cannot really be called running, but I was managing to propel myself forward with some daylight under my feet, so I guess I satisfied the technical definition. By the final mile, I was getting closer to normal form, although the hamstring tightness felt similar to the last 6-8 miles of the marathon. Fortunately, the run warmed the legs up enough to allow for some quality stretching after I got home. Hopefully the effort will help speed up my recovery.
By the way, I ate a juicy burger and fries on Saturday night and a steak on Sunday. Oh, the joys of post-marathon gluttony! | 