28 Days Later...

No, not the movie about the zombie apocalypse, the number of days since I ran my first marathon.

A month after running the Baltimore Marathon, I'm pretty much completely recovered. My right knee is still a bit dodgy, but for the most part, I feel really good. But let me tell you, that first week afterwards was a struggle. From immediately after I crossed the finish line to late Sunday evening, I was moving around a very, very reduced pace. My left foot was absolutely killing me, and regular movements were nearly impossible. I did my best to stretch afterwards and within a few hours of finishing, as well as the days following, and that helped, but it was definitely a process returning to full mobility.

Monday morning following the race, my walk to the metro station took me about twice as long as it usually does, and I found that walking in general just wasn't going to be an easy task right off the bat. I figured it was better just to push through the stiffness and soreness in my limbs and joints and do my best to walk everywhere I could so as not to prolong said stiffness and soreness.

I knew I hadn't injured anything, I had just run a marathon, and this was my body's way of telling me "Hey, this isn't something that normal people do, I'm not built to do this, and damn it, if you ever want to do this again, you had better take your training more seriously!" This last bit is probably the biggest reason I struggled so much in the week following the marathon. It was simple, I just hadn't put all the training I had needed to be fully prepared for the marathon. But that's what first marathons are for, to find out if this is something that you would want to do again, and if it is, to figure out what worked and what didn't, and most importantly, what can be done the next time around to make it a more enjoyable experience both during and afterwards. Wait, did I just say that I'm thinking about doing another one? Maybe. I haven't really decided yet. If you had asked me immediately afterwards, I would have said no without even thinking about it, but the more I think about it, especially with the fact that I finished a lot slower than I was hoping for, I think there is a good possibility that I will run another one. This time, however, I will have extra motivation in that I have the knowledge of what is and isn't enough training and I can properly prepare. I also think that if I were to do it again, I will definitely try to find someone to train with, at least for a good portion of it, because it's a lot easier to drag yourself out of bed in the morning if you have someone to hold you accountable.

Well that's enough about running and marathons for now, there's a lot that's happened in the month since my last entry.

For starters, how about the 49ers? At 7-1, only the undefeated Green Bay Packers have a better record in the entire league, and they're off to their best start in almost 15 years. Yes, maybe the Niners have benefited from playing in the worst division in the NFL, as the rest of the division has a combined 5 wins, however they've only played one divisional game, so you can't say that they've been beating up on their division on their way to a 7-1 record. They have the best run defense in the league, the best scoring defense in the league (fewest points per game scored against), and Frank Gore is tearing defenses apart. Alex Smith hasn't always been spectacular, but he's finally getting some time to throw the ball, and he's making good decisions, throwing only 2 interceptions on the season, the fewest of any starting quarterback that has started every game for their team. No, he's not Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, or Drew Brees, but Smith is doing what is necessary to help his team win games, including leading 4th quarter comebacks against the Eagles and Lions, both on the road. Another impressive stat for his 49ers team is that they are undefeated (4-0) in the Eastern Time Zone, something that in recent years would have never thought to have been possible for this franchise. Are they legitimate Super Bowl contenders in the NFC? I don't think so quite yet. Their defense is clearly a lot closer than their offense to reaching that level, but I think if they are able to secure home-field advantage in the playoffs, which certainly isn't out of the question, I think anything is possible. Tough games against the Ravens and Steelers will go a long way to show how seriously this team should be taken come January.

The St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series, which was a bit disappointing since I'm not a huge fan of Tony LaRussa or Albert Pujols, but now that it's over, we can focus on the offseason and free agency. The Giants have already made a move in trading Jonathan Sanchez and minor league pitcher Ryan Verdugo to the Kansas City Royals for outfielder Melky Cabrera. Initially, I was a little unsure of this trade, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense and the more I liked it. Of course I am a little sad to see Sanchez go, I always liked him as a player and was eagerly awaiting the day that he finally realized his potential and became a dominant starting pitcher. He showed flashes of brilliance, no-hitting the Padres at the end of the 2009 season, but never was really able to put it all together. Yes, he was a strikeout machine, but he also walked way too many batters. Melky Cabrera is coming off a career year, which is a little unsettling in that he may try to use that to get the best deal possible and coast off of the money he'll make from it. But I don't think that is likely to happen. I also don't think the Giants will let that happen. The good thing about Cabrera is that he's still relatively young at 27 and while he's a been a solid producer in his years as a major leaguer, he hasn't put up incredible numbers, and for that reason he'll help the Giants in 2 ways. First, he'll automatically become the best hitter in the outfield (unless they can resign Carlos Beltran) and add some additional speed to the lineup as well as a bit of power. Second, he shouldn't cost the Giants too much to sign him to a one or two-year contract, saving them money to go after other free agents.

Last week I booked tickets to spend the first week of April in Spain visiting my cousin Tyler, who as I may or may not have mentioned before (I don't remember and I'm not going to go back and reread my previous posts to find it) is in Spain working for a year as an English language assistant in Cuenca, Spain at a local high school. Or something like that. You can read more about his experiences in his blog here. I'm very excited about this trip as I have never been to Spain, and I haven't been to Europe since I was 9, so I'm already looking forward to this very much. We've talked a few times about what we can do while I'm there, and we have a few ideas in the works, but we've also come to the realization that it's only a week, and as such, there are only a limited amount of things that we will be able to do without becoming too overwhelmed by constantly traveling all over the place. However, it does seem increasingly likely that we will try to go to a La Liga match the Sunday after I arrive. La Liga is the top soccer division in Spain and has a lot of very competitive teams. One thing that is nice about where Tyler lives is that it is pretty much equidistant from Madrid and Valencia, who have a total of 5 teams in La Liga. Ideally I would love to go to a Real Madrid match, as they are one of the biggest clubs in the world, as well as one of the teams I love to watch, but unfortunately they do not play at home. However, it just so happens that the other 4 teams from these two cities are playing each other in local derbies (Athletico Madrid vs. Getafe in a matchup of Madrid teams and Levante vs. Valencia in a matchup of Valencia teams). The fact that they are local rivalry games will only add to the intensity of the match, thus increasing the atmosphere, which would be undoubtably incredible. We're also leaning towards flying to Paris to spend a couple days in the City of Light. Flying within Europe is unbelievably cheap (less than $100 roundtrip from Madrid to Paris), so why not take advantage of that? That being said, I would still like to see as much of Spain as I can while I am there (at least the local regions), so we'll have to decide what we want to do, but of course there's still three and a half months until I'm there, so we have plenty of time to plan and decide.

Lastly, this week I finally upgraded my phone for the first time in almost 5 years and got the new iPhone 4S. Let me tell you, it's cool to play with your friend's iPhones, but it's a whole different story to actually own one. I've only had mine for a few days, and haven't even discovered all the cool things it can do, but I already love it. It really is probably the coolest thing I've ever owned. The amount of functions and capabilities it has is incredible, but I'd rather not ramble on and on about it, so suffice it to say it's an amazing piece of technology.

Well that's all for now. As you can probably tell, now that my marathon is over, I don't have much to write about in regards to race preparation, so I'll probably just keep you updated on what's going on in my life, which may eventually include preparing for another marathon. Stay tuned...