[151] How does it feel being a marathoner?

ORN: Today, I did a tempo run -- three miles of comfortably hard effort sandwiched between an easy mile each of warm up and cool down. The whole shootin' match took me 46'32", but what matters is the tempo part. That I managed with an average pace of 8'45", which is right on target according to McMillan. It's closer to my Long Tempo pace according to FIRST. Whatever. I did it, and it's done. I'm just glad the rain held off.

Two and a half weeks on, one of the most common questions I've answered since finishing the marathon has been "How did you feel afterward?" That's a complicated question, but what they really want to know is simple: "how badly did it hurt?" The disappointing answer [to them] is not much , really. I've had mild heel pain [plantar fasciitis] since I started running a few years ago, and during the race, starting around mile 16 or so, my left heel started hurting badly. So badly, I ran the remaining ten miles on the ball of that foot. That's a long way to limp.

Since the race, I have been massaging, stretching, and/or icing that foot several times a day and slathering it with sports creme every other day or so. The pain hasn't been bad enough to keep me from running, but it's been damned tender down there, specifically on a spot on my heel between one and two o'clock, near the instep. And, like the textbook definition of plantar fasciitis, it hurts like a mother when I wake up or after I've been seated for a long time, yet it's fine after walking around for a few minutes. I'll continue to treat it with ice and massage; I'll be glad to see it go.

Apart from that, friends, I feel great. Two weeks on and I still look at that medal on my wall and smile.