The Aftermath

You wanna know something interesting about running 50 miles? The race is the easy part. On the front end you have day after day, week after week, month after month of running miles upon miles. Up to 120+ miles in one week at the peak. Then you start to rest, and all that fatigue that's been living in your body starts to rise to the surface. Bringing with it all sorts of irritable emotions. You finally start to feel better and it's race day. And what a glorious day it is indeed. All the hard work paying off, the excitement of seeing other crazy people running with you, and all those loyal loving friends and family who come out to watch. It's amazing. Then the race is over and you celebrate that night. The ensuing days after the race - those are just as brutal - if not more so than the preparation. You're digestive system is all out of whack. You're constantly hungry - or so it seems. Walking turns into shuffling around and walking stairs becomes like climbing a mountain with someone stabbing needles in your legs. This is only the physical aspect of recovery. Then there's the emotional side of things. It's like a mild case of postpartum depression. I remember this from my first endurance race and luckily now I recognize it for what it is, but it still isn't the funnest of times. Oh well, in time it'll all be good again.