Aesthete Runner

I waited for October for months in excitement of the marathon and now there are only two days left. I am sad to see my favorite month come and go, but it was a successful month. Three weeks post marathon and my runs are getting easier and longer again. I have returned to a schedule of sorts in that I find myself running on the same days as my Hansons plan, but the distance depends on how I feel that day.

I often joke that a person is not a "runner" unless he or she has experienced an injury. While this is not true, the reality is that most runners will experience an injury at one point or another. Whether it is merely a shin pain that lasts for a day or two or a fracture, injuries still suck.

I can't believe this is the last Trail Tuesday of the month! October has flown by. In case you noticed, I missed the Trail Tuesday post last week while on vacation. I have some pictures to share of a "trail" of a different kind that I was walking on a week ago. My "trail" last week was on Bethany Beach, Delaware.

It is hard to believe that the Chicago marathon was two weeks ago today! The soreness and post race blues have subsided, and life has returned to what feels like limbo as I currently have no training plan to follow for now. I still have a few blisters and black toenails, but compared to my first marathon this is nothing!

To read my recap of the race, visit my previous post . Now that I have had a few days to recover both physically and mentally, I have really thought about my performance during the race. Clearly I have too much time on my hands being unemployed, but I think it is natural for anyone who commits to a goal for a long period of time to dissect things to understand what went wrong and celebrate what went well.

I cannot believe that after almost 20 weeks of training, the marathon is over. The post-marathon blues have set in and I feel a little sad that this major goal has come and gone after thinking and dreaming about it for so many months. There are never enough words to really summarize what it is like to run a marathon. It is one of those things like child birth that you can really only understand after you have done it, but I am going to try my best to put my experience into words that I can share.

Fall is in full force right now and I am aching to get out and take multiple pictures on the trails. My marathon legs are still a bit sore and achy, so for now enjoy a few pictures from my final easy runs before the marathon.

The final week! I will write about the actual race another time, but I will say that overall it was a great experience. I did not achieve the time that I wanted or trained for, but I am proud of the 6 minute PR I accomplished.

TWO DAYS!! Or as the clock reminds me, less than 44 hours! It's happening!

The first Trail Tuesday of October, and I am truly enjoying the weather and watching nature explode into color. I have been trying to run on the trail as much as possible lately and until I find a job, welcome to my new office:

ONE WEEK! I don't know if it has quite hit me yet that this time next week, assuming all goes well, I will have finished the Chicago Marathon. All of the weeks of training have finally come down to this final week.