Photos And Some Notes

Notes

It's been 5 days since the race and recovery has been going rather well, with one notable exception. Obviously I felt rather destroyed on Sunday evening but on Monday I was already well enough to first go to W5 with the kids for 5 hours and then drive to Dublin.

Muscular recovery was swift. I guess having done this a few times before helped and I'm also reasonably sure that wearing those very cushioned shoes helped in that regard as well. By Wednesday I was walking down staircases without any discomfort.

I had a slight sunburn on my head. The unexpected sunshine on Saturday obviously being stronger than it felt. I did put on a bandana after a while but obviously a little too late. This caused one uncomfortable night on Monday as I just could not find a way to put my head onto the pillow with it pressing against my hurting skin but was suddenly gone by Tuesday.

My endocrine system took a hit and I have been feeling tired all week. I wasn't my usual self in the office. Today, Friday, I can feel a massive improvement, though, and am almost back to feeling human again.

I got a rash of small spots all over my forehead. I had the same thing happening after Turin and the Spartathlon. I have no idea what exactly is causing it (endocrine system?) but it seems to be happening after each extreme effort. That's gone away now as well.

The one area that is giving me by far the most grief is the big toe on my left foot. It is badly swollen with an angry red are close to teh nail. The nail itself is a bit dark which makes me suspect that I might have an uneven number of toenails in a few days. This is still very uncomfortable, 5 days after the race, and nothing I've ever had to deal with before. I'm blaming it on the Hokas. They might have saved my muscles from some damage but their toebox is notoriously narrow and sub-optimal. I might check out their latest shoe (Clayton), which apparently has some improvement in that area.

I haven't done any running yet. I might have been tempted by the quick recovery of the muscle damage but the toe will prevent that for a while. Most likely a good thing! I did an hour of yoga on the beach on Thursday morning, though.

Photos

from John Desmond (who was Grellan's crew):

from the race officials: