Recovery

Yesterday I competed in a half marathon. I ran 21.1k through Den Haag (The Hague) in 2 hours, 16 minutes, and 50 seconds. My time was in the range that I had thought and am quite proud. But, in hindsight I think I could have ran it a bit faster and without a few of the post run side effects if I had done a few things differently. To be blunt, there are some things I did not do right.

First of all, I only trained for a month prior to the race. I only ran one long run (16 km). Therefore, I only realized at about km 10 that there might be something wrong with my shoes. On both of my legs, the insides between mid calf and ankle really hurt. They had ached a bit on short runs but I thought it was due to the one incline on our normal route. Well, I don't think that is the cause anymore, because the race course was quite flat and my legs started hurting halfway through and became more painful with every step. I now blame the shoes. I ordered them online but they were the same make and model as a pair I had about a year ago, just a different color. Grrr.

Hmm, I guess that was two things. More training and better shoes. That is about all I would change. I am recovering now. My legs don't ache too much, I didn't get any blisters, but I did get a bit of chafing. It is in a really strange place that I never expected to have a problem...my lower back. I think it's from the tag of my underwear. I'm actually quite embarrassed to admit that. Anyway, my skin is almost raw, but the Neosporin is helping.

The race itself was lots of fun. As a veteran runner told us on the train over, the weather was perfect. No sun, but no wind or rain either at a balmy 15C (60F). A group of 9 of us from IHE ran and Carlitos was the official photographer and backpack holder. While the boys ran ahead, I ran the first half of the race with Lindsay. She left me half way through because I couldn't keep up due to my aching legs. The route was really nice and I appreciated all the people cheering and bands playing for us along the way ("Sweet Caroline" got me past km 8). We ran for about 2 km along the pier at Scheveningen, staring at the flat North Sea. I saw signs for water after km 16 and after some refreshment kept my eyes open for the km 17 sign. After a few minutes I was sure I had missed it and started looking for km 18. A short while later I saw it in the distance and in my mind was so relieved that I only had 3 km left. But as I approached I realized it was the km 19 sign! Only 2 km left, what a relief. The whole race was so psychological.

Being the last one of our group to finish I found my friends at the end and we decided to celebrate with the traditional form of recovery after any group sport, the third half (though in this case it was proper to call it the second half). After 21.1km we recovered with a beer (ok, I had two). When we finally got home I collapsed in my bed for the rest of the day and have spent today being lazy (though I have read a few papers for my thesis).

The race was fun and though just after the finish line I swore I would never do it again, I actually am now considering a marathon. But only with more training and better shoes.