My first ultra was history, and it was now time to recover and prepare myself for the rest of the year. I felt a tinge of sadness, but I knew that I had just completed one of the most amazing journeys and obtained a priceless running experience.
They say that you can learn everything about yourself in 26.2 miles, imagine what happens over 50?!
I was pretty sore when I woke up this morning, still in Hagerstown, MD.
It was a "good sore" though. A good sore is when I am sore all over, but the soreness is spread evenly throughout both sides of my body. To me this means that I ran as efficiently and mechanically as best as I could. Even the only physically outward sign of my 50 mile run (two blisters on my feet) were identical!
The plan today was to just get in the 5K before making the 8 hr drive back to Mass with Reno and Fil.
Fil and I got up at 6:30AM and was out the door by 7AM. We pretty much did the same loop that we did on Friday afternoon, but I definitely was feeling a lot different this morning.
It took us 32 minutes to complete the run, and Fil had to physically pull me up a "small" hill during our run. This was definitely the most difficult 5K training run I've had all year, but it definitely helped loosen me up for the rest of the day.
I spent the majority of the ride home just napping, stretching, and absorbing as much info as I could from Reno, the human running encyclopedia, before we departed ways. We all exchanged running stories and racing strategies, including our mistakes and take-aways from our first our JFK.
This got me thinking about JFK again.
After I finished the race yesterday I said "no mas" to myself and everybody around me. I felt that it was time to admit that I wasn't made for ultras.
Of course, this just made me even more eager to give it another shot.
I'm still trying to comprehend and process everything that happened yesterday, so it hasn't all sunk in yet.
The one thing that I've learned is that this run was a lot like my first marathon where I made a ton of mistakes and suffered mightily for it. I also remember saying something to the effect of no mas to marathons back then too. I, of course, eventually went on to learn from those mistakes and turned them into advantages.
Would I ever want to do JFK again?
I'll have to sleep on this one for at least another 364 Days.
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