My first marathon has been completed, what a great feeling....almost surreal. The painful memories have faded, leaving me with mostly good memories and more importantly, a little more knowledgeable about running. The marathon experience certainly was humbling to me. (I need to be humbled occasionally)
So, now that I have reached my goal, the question is, what's next? It would be easy to give up or back off of running for any number of reasons. But running feels good, it energizes me, keeps me healthy, and occupies my time in a positive way. While you are likely sleeping or watching TV, I am running.
The real question is, will I run another marathon? I am certainly leaning towards doing so at this point. I feel like I have learned many things from this first experience and can significantly improve my finish time while reducing the pain level by changing race and training strategies.
For now the plan is to build up my mileage nice and easy over the next month or so until I can get a true training plan put together. I will be logging some miles at an easy pace to build stamina, leg strength and aerobic endurance. I am also planning on joining the YMCA so that I can take advantage of some of their classes on my non-running days to build core strength. I have started reading a new book titled Healthy Intelligent Training by Keith Livingstone. It is so far a good book, very technical and based on the principals of Arthur Lydiard. Hopefully it will help me become a stronger runner while remaining mostly injury free.
Those of you reading this that do not run or exercise (especially family members) I urge you to find something that you can do to burn some calories and get your blood pumping. Turn off that TV and go for a walk while you can, it doesn't matter what you do as long as you are doing it. It's not easy, but then anything worthwhile rarely is easy. Sure, it's easy for me to say this now, there are many days I dream of flopping my ass on the couch and watching TV, but it feels so good to overcome this urge and actually do something. Do it for yourself and your family.
End of speech. When I figure out my training plan and confirm any future marathon plans you will be the first to know!
"If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." Vincent Van Gogh
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