Umstead 100 miler 13 days later

This year I have decided to followu-up my Umstead 100 mile run with a chronicle of how I have recovered. This hopefully will serve as a baseline for Vermont 100 as well as for next year, when I am puzzling over when I will stop feeling certain pain and when I will be able to resume normal activity.

But before I get into this, I have finished my race write up. I will warn you it is 15 pages long, but for those of you with the endurance to read 15 pages, you can click on the following link:

http://www.restonrunners.org/success-stories/massie_t2008.php

Now, to summarize my progress to date. This year immediately upon finishing the race, my husband drove us from Raliegh to Richmond to my father-in-laws. We stopped briefly at his house so I could shower and to drop a few items off. We then continued back to our home in Maryland. I might have dozed off occasionally, but for the most part I was awake and my husband suggests somewhat chatty. I don't recall much of what I said.

Sunday night I slept pretty well after falling asleep about 8:30. I woke up about 5 a.m. which is usual for me. I did not get up until closer to 6 a.m. just because of pure laziness on my part. My feet were painful as were my knees. And a very odd blister/chaffing location about 2 inches above my heel was discomfortable. It is still a mystery where this problem came from. At work, my colleagues took good care of me, feeding me and watering me at regular intervals (it may have helped that I brought in cake to celebrate so was sort of bribing them to help me:-)

Monday-Thursday I really craved mashed potatoes for the second year in a row. I think it is because I really go to town with the salt on my mashed potatoes so perhaps my body knew it would get some of it's sodium and potassium replenished. Monday-Thursday I was icing my right knee, which still has occasional pain from a car accident I had (getting hit as a pedestrian). I also had pain on the front of my foot near my toe joints. This continues to a lesser extent through today, but I think was excerbated by standing for about 11 hours straight while volunteering at Bull Run (on a cement surface no less!)

The final odd pain has to do with my arms for about 2 days after the race and was probably explained by the fact I kept waving my poncho around to dry it off a bit. I have no upper body strength so just doing this really was quite a workout!

The Wednesday a week and a half after Umstead I tried to run. I went about 1 mile and was really happy about it. Thursday (yesterday), I ran to my local running store, Fleet Feet Gaithersburg which is about 1 mile the shortest route then ran an additional 4 miles during their Thursday Fun Run.

In addition to this milestone running, the first day I walked a moderate distance was one week after Umstead when Tristan and I went to a local garden: Brookside Gardens. We walked around for about 1.5 hours and appreciated the daffodils, tulips, cherry blossoms and many other blooming flowers and tree's.

As of today I would say I am completely recovered, which is good considering I have only 2 weeks to cram to get ready for the Frederick Marathon and just 3 months until Vermont 100 miler!