Two Days After The Big Hill

In addition to running a marathon in the morning, the remainder of my Saturday was filled with writing my blog post (that took 90 minutes), getting cleaned up, attending a celebratory dinner in honor of retiring Pac 10 Commissioner Tom Hansen and his wife, Melva, and then flying home.

My flight was on the "red eye" to Detroit (thanks to the merger of Delta with Northwest Airlines) and then to Birmingham, which provided a 10 a.m. landing and time to make it to the second service at Brook Hills on Sunday morning. I even managed to stay awake during the entire service time.

What did you do with your weekend?

I didn't mow the lawn, stain the deck or deal with the rest of my "to do" list. But I ran up and down a hill.

A couple of follow up notes:

-This was the first marathon where I did not receive a finisher's medal. Since the run was near Santa Cruz, California, it seems appropriate the finisher's award would be something outside the box. Each finisher was presented with a framed picture of "Emily's Bridge," which was a bridge we crossed in the first/last four miles of the run. So that was cool in its own way.

-I should have packed my trail running shoes. Instead, I ran my third marathon (April, May and June) in the same pair of Asics. My feet and legs are relatively fine, but the shoes are now a mess and likely headed for retirement. The dirt from the trail pretty much covered me from the knees down...especially on, in, around and through my shoes and socks.

-Despite the fact that it's good to get out and walk the day following a marathon, I did not do a thing on Sunday. I spent today (Monday) walking a bit like Frankenstein due to some very stiff and sore thighs. Tonight I completed 3.4 miles on an elliptical machine, which already feels better.

Finally (for tonight) here is the blogging plan for the next few weeks. Each day for the next month I'm intending to post a story from one of the marathons I've completed. I've journaled about most of these, so I can go back and find my contemporaneous notes to build in to each blog post. I'll start with the first, which I ran on November 6, 1988 and finish with the Rocket City Marathon from December 2008. Since the Rocket City run was my personal best time and the last marathon prior to this quest, that's a good place to end.

I hope its worth reading.