Recovering

It's hard to believe I just ran the marathon last Sunday.  Today is Thursday, so I'm on my fourth day out.  Immediately after the race I was pretty creaky.  Everything tightened up pretty fast and my feet were hurting so I was a slow moving girl that day.

Monday I was pretty sore.  I hobbled around like a little old lady and kept my toes covered with loose socks so as not to look at them.  I stayed indoors most of that day, with the exception of a trip to In-n-Out for lunch with Heidi and Jake.  Climbing in and out of Heidi's Range Rover was a bit of a challenge and I certainly looked a little wounded shuffling around the restaurant.  I still had to sleep with my feet sticking out of the covers at the end of the bed because of my toes. 

Tuesday I was decidedly less sore.  Still somewhat creaky and shuffley, but moving much better.  My toes were still hurting pretty much all the time, but I could take the socks off and not gross myself out, so that was progress.  Heidi and I went to lunch at Bob's Big Boy that day and moving around was definitely improved.  Tuesday afternoon Heidi and Jake dropped me off at John Wayne Airport and I actually had to walk a bit to check in, get through security, and make my way to my gate.  Thank goodness I wasn't flying out of a massive airport like LAX as my poor toes were really feeling it as I walked more.  I had to hurry to my connecting flight in Oakland and by the time I made it home to Portland my toes were pretty throbby.  Again, I had to sleep with the covers pulled up above my feet.

Wednesday I woke up with almost no muscle soreness whatsoever.  I was pretty surprised, as I really expected it to take a lot longer than that.  If it weren't for my toes I could have gone for a short run that day.  None of my usual hot spots were hurting, either.  I finally took my toenail polish off Wednesday... very, very delicately.  That's the last time I run a long distance in toenail polish.  I managed to get it off and yuck, those toes aren't too attractive.  I think my original prediction was correct ~ I'd guess I'm going to lose four nails.  Walking around for too long still makes them ache, but they don't hurt constantly anymore.  Still no real shoes, although last night I slept part of the night under covers as long as my feet were turned sideways and not pointed up. 

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how the recovery is going.  I've learned over the period of doing my long training runs and now the marathon that I really enjoy the healing process.  In the past I would've used tylenol or ibuprofen while healing from something painful, but somewhere along the way I stopped doing that.  It's a fascinating thing to actually feel your body heal itself day by day.  I'm not against the use of over the counters ~ I'll still use one if I need to, but this is a rewarding way to heal as well. 

Things are going well.  I'm looking forward to my toes feeling better and getting back into real shoes to go for a little run.