aftermath - or how i'm going mad

to follow up from my last post, i've had plenty of time to process the race, talk with ken and reflect on my performance and the short answer to my 'was the race a success' question is a resounding YES.

everyone who has run a marathon knows what a fickle beast she can be. so much can happen over the course of such a long race, including the periods leading up to the race, and sometimes it's just not a good day for a race. that was ken on sunday. i just happened to be on the opposite side of the spectrum.

success, for me, was running a solid race to give myself some confidence at that speed. having run a 3:33, with little effort, has me wondering just how fast can i really go. not having killed myself on the race has me feeling AMAZING this week and really chomping at the bit to get back into the training. that's such a far cry from where i usually am at this point after a race. i'm usually burnt out on the training and wanting a break for the next month. i'm begging the coach to throw the miles at me again. but, patience is wisdom at this point.

i have rest on the schedule all this week, with cross training days if i get too stir crazy. i've already developed an 11 foot stare in a 10 foot room. it doesn't help that the only thing i've been watching on the television is le tour. watching endurance athletes grind out tough mountain stages doesn't help put me in a recovery mindset. i think i'll have to hop on the bike or take out the kayak this weekend.

anyway, smsmh and i had a great couple days following the race. sunday evening we headed over to stacey's brother's place for dinner. we gorged ourselves on ribs, went for a walk down to puget sound and just relaxed. it was a great way to finish off the day. ken was in a great mood and it tied a nice, happy bow on the whole ugly mess.

monday we headed out to coeur d'alene to check out the area. cda is on our short list of places to move, so we wanted to get a better feel for the area and see the residential side vs. the tourist. on our way we stopped off in elensberg to visit keith and 'talia. all i have to say is that keith is frankenstein. he's tall. nephelim tall. men of great renown tall. paul bunyon. actually, he's only like 6'6", but still, i had a crick in my neck from looking up the whole time we were there. they played great hosts to us, taking us downtown for lunch and then hanging out in the garden back at their place. i even got to toss the ball around with the much blogged about pi and see the extra-toed cat, digit. thanks for the great afternoon, guys!

that night, we finally ended up in cda, got a room and hit the hay. up early the next morning, we headed downtown, got some chow at a groovy little coffee shop and then headed into a realtor's office across the street to talk about the area and housing opportunities. we spent a good hour chatting with a local agent, marking spots on the map for us to check out. we spent the rest of the day looking at property and driving the surrounding towns. lets just say that cda is quickly moving up the short list.

about 3pm, we headed back towards seattle and by 8pm we were in our old home town, issaquah. we stopped for a groovy salmon dinner and then, since we didn't need to get up early the next day, decided to catch the last showing of war of the worlds. smsmh nearly took my arm off through that thing. it's edge of the seat entertainment for the whole 2 hours.

we flew back home wednesday night and i spent yesterday trying to get caught up at work. it's a good thing i didn't check my work email while we were in cda. we might have just put the house up for sale and stayed there.

but, it's always good to come back home. although, now i don't have the distraction of vacation to keep me from wanting to get out and run. and so, i'm going mad. i'll end this post with the insanity that was the hill profile from sunday's race.

*twitch*