Running again - well, kind of...

This is the picture ShoreTurtle sent me this morning after meeting with Brent and Rachel. He said they were okay, just that they looked a little different than the pictures on their websites. He suggested meeting somewhere public!

He later posted this (more accurate) picture on his blog.

We're scheduled to meet for dinner on Wednesday, and I'm looking foward to it.

In other news, I finally went out for a run today. I've been feeling pretty good. The only problem I still notice is that when I squat down (e.g. to pick something up off the floor), I feel a tight pain at the top of my right hamstring, right where it attaches to my butt. (This is the exact area which I felt go into spasm as I tried to stretch my quads at mile 15 of the marathon.) Other than that, I felt back to normal. So after setting up the latest Phedippidations on my iPod, I headed out for a short run. I planned to do a 2 mile loop near my house, and if I was feeling good, maybe do it twice.

Well.... I wasn't ready for all that yet. I could tell as soon as I tried to stretch that I wasn't as recovered as I thought I was. (They do say to rest 1 day for every mile run!) I just couldn't stretch my quads properly - they're still too tight.

I set off at a nice slow pace. The first few minutes felt a little funny, but otherwise no problems. As I started getting close to one mile I felt my quads hurting again. It reminded me of the marathon, just not near as bad. At first I kept going slowly, wanting to at least finish the 2 mile loop. After a little more I realized that I wasn't doing myself any good. So at a mile and a quarter I stopped, and walked the remaining three quarters of a mile back. I was limping as I walked back, and my right knee was hurting, which was a little weird. (It's still bothering me a little.) As I limped back a few runners passed me by. I couldn't help thinking that I should have been wearing my medal so they would know why I was limping!

Don't worry though, I actually still get to be a celebrity now and then. Last night I was in a friend's apartment meeting a few people. He kept saying "Did you know Dan ran the marathon?" It was kind of funny.

Here's another benefit of running a marathon.

It wasn't that long ago that I was excited to reach 1000 visits. Then as the marathon got closer, visit 2000 rolled by. Then with all the people tracking me on marathon day, and reading the (exciting) recaps in the following week, number 3000 has come by in no time at all. I know the excitement will die down - actually, it already has - but it was kind of exciting there!

Just so you know, running a marathon does come with a price. And it's more than you think. Take a look at this.

Ok, not all those things are direct marathon costs. But those are all things that I wouldn't have bought or paid for if I wasn't into all this running madness. I could have thought of a few more costs, but once I was over $1000 I figured you'd get the point. Crazy, huh? (Or as my Canadian instinct wants me to say: Crazy, eh?)

Tomorrow I'm on call again, so another forced day of rest. Hopefully I'll get back out there on Tuesday.