Let’s take care of the big news first … I finished Cactus Rose!!! 100 MILES!!! WOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can read all about it here if you are so inclined. It’s not as epic as some of my past race reports … which shows amazing restraint on my part considering I had 100 freakin’ miles to write about. ;-)
I’m feeling mostly recovered. I still get tired pretty easily … I’ve been averaging about 9 hours of sleep every night since the race. And my feet are still not 100% … but you should have seen them after the race. If you know me well, you know that I don’t swell … ever. Seriously, I’ve had some pretty serious injuries in my life, and in general, I don’t get very swollen. Broken bones, sprains, surgery … I just don’t swell much. So if you could have seen how swollen my feet were after the race … no definition at all, no veins visible, I couldn’t wear anything but flip flops for 3 days afterward. They looked like little fat baby feet. Of course, I was also holding onto about 7 pounds of water weight after the race as well, so it wasn’t just my poor feet that were swollen. That all resolved itself after 5 or 6 days, thankfully. And the nerve pain in my feet as they got back to normal subsided after a few days, but wow! was it painful at the time. Not to mention the blisters and the numbness … I still don’t have complete feeling in two of my toes and I have no idea whether or not that’s permanent. It’s not a big deal … small spot on two small toes. But it does drive home just how much I put my body through to achieve this goal. I won’t rehash it all here – that’s what the race report was for. But let’s just say it has definitely been quite a recovery process.
On the plus side (aside from RUNNING 100 MILES!!!), my legs were hardly sore at all after the race. I think all that strength training really made the difference here. Even though my training season is done, this is one thing I’m going to keep doing. Met with my trainer this morning in fact, to talk about where we go from here, and I’m excited about making new progress.
Other than that, I am taking it easy (for me) and looking forward to a few months of play time. Doing more yoga, running for fun and working on speed, throwing in some other stuff if the mood strikes … right now I have no plan and I like it that way. :-)
I did treat myself to a little present after the race … I finally broke down after months of contemplation and bought myself a snazzy new MacBook Pro. It’s so pretty, all shiny and new, and I’m still figuring it out, but so far I LOVE IT!
I am also so happy to report that after a short work trip to Houston last week for an advisory council meeting, I am done with work travel until February … at least that’s how it looks right now. And since my racing season is over, that means much more time to just enjoy my life in Austin. I am looking forward to a few days in Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with my sister and the boys. Jolly is signing us up for a 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day on Forbidden Drive, and Chad and my mom and the boys are going to do the 1 mile run/walk … a super fun family outing and I can’t think of a better way to give thanks!
I’ll leave you with a few pics from Cactus Rose, courtesy of Henry …
Here I am about 20 miles into race, still happy and looking fresh …
And here I am with Joe and Joyce right after my finish, not quite as pretty but not bad for 100 miles …
And here I am with my pacer Leah, who took care of me throughout the race and got me through the final 25 miles …
