Freeze Frame

We are now three days post-Shamrock, and I'm feeling better with each passing day.  I can ambulate with the normal gait pattern of a human instead of a pirate, and going up and down stairs doesn't involve the mustering of courage it did on Monday or even yesterday.  Aside from the IT band pain that ebbs and flows right along with the levels of ibuprofen in my bloodstream, my body feels good.  My battle scars of delayed onset muscle soreness are fading, and I'm ready to get my sweat on.  Sadly, I will be putting running on hold indefinitely until we get these issues with my left leg sorted out, but I'm excited about getting back to my usual early morning workouts with my GBFL (gym buddy for life, of course) Ryan, and our fearless leader, Mr. Tony Horton.  Bring it!!!  

Now, I know that in my race recap, I talked about things like being in pain, fighting the wind, and hitting a wall, but I promise you I enjoyed myself during this race.  I followed some silly advice from Kristy at Breath of Sunshine that had absolutely nothing to do with running.  She told me to smile and wave at the race photographers on the course.  This tidbit of advice jived well with my "fake it til ya make it" approach to this race, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  

 I have no idea where this was taken, but thumbs up, dude:

Double fisting some GUs before turning onto Shore Drive, around mile 16...what a GUber!!!

 Southbound on Atlantic, somewhere between miles 22 and 25

On the boardwalk, with King Neptune's dolphins in the blur over my right shoulder - probably around mile 26.1

I just like smiling.  Smiling's my favorite.  Not only did it give me something to do during the race, but Kristy was right when she said it would really lift my spirits.  Thank you, Kristy!!!

But it wasn't all fun and games.  The paparazzi did manage to catch a shot of me with more of a game face on:

Either the Secret Service was following me closely, or that guy was about to murder me!  

The finish line shots are evidence of how relieved I was to cross that finish line:

And this one shows all the celebration I could muster:

I was a bit giddy (delirious?) posing for the final photo with my coveted medal:

I've never been one to buy any of the official race photos (hence the photos of the photos on my computer screen I just shared with you!), but I may drop some major hints to Ryan about these...Mother's Day isn't all that far away, right?  I haven't ruled out running another marathon, but there's just something special about your first time...