Post-race

Well, that was the easy part. As Newton opined, a body in motion wants to stay in motion, and when mine stopped, I had to keep moving. The general goodness I was feeling during the race dissipated and disappeared when I crossed the line. It is amazing how quickly endorphins seem to leave the body. When I crossed the finish line, my heart rate came down nearly immediately, which actually wasn't much, because I was racing most of the day at 125-130 beats per minute. At the finish, I started to feel dizzy and light-headed, but knowing my generally low heart rate (40-45 bpm), I walked around to combat the affects of stopping. Thanks to my friend Petra, a few minutes of walking around kept my heart rate up and allowed my body to keep up circulation, ridding my body of 'the evils'.

It felt good to walk and I was feeling better after a few minutes. As a precaution, the staff at the medical tent insisted on weighing me even though I was feeling pretty good and didn't feel like I needed an IV. When I stepped on the scale, I was only two pounds less then when I weighed in Friday. Guess that means my nutrition and hydration was pretty good. I think I actually ate and drank more than I needed. It obviously would be worse if I didn't consume enough and was slowed because of that, but when I checked my watch, I had only burned 6000 calories. This might sound like a lot of exertion, but it was only 600 calories an hour on 300 calories taken in each hour. Add that amount to what I ate the day and two days before, and it equals a zero-sum gain. Once I was feeling good, I grabbed a piece of pizza and some water, and ate and drank those, but I really wasn't hungry or thirsty at all, so I kind of forced those down.

Hobbling gingerly, I walked into the Terrace to get out of my wet, sweaty race clothes. I was pleased to discover a benefit in finishing in the 90th percentile (for those many teachers in the family reading this blog), receiving a 20+ minute massage after the race. There were plenty of tables open, so the masseurs were able to spend as much time as needed on each athlete. (For the future, if you do the Ironman, I suggest going fast. It's nice to finish early.) My parents and I headed for the Old Fashioned on the square for supper at 7:30, only because they were hungry and I wanted to break my self-imposed no-junk diet. I couldn't really eat much (I didn't really even touch my supper), but I was able to finish all the french fries...mmmmm, french fries (with Homer Simpson voice). We were able to watch excited athletes soldier towards the finish two blocks away, excited because they were two blocks away from finishing or stoic because they had thirteen more miles to race. Either way, everyone needed to be cheered with gusto.

After supper, my Mom and I headed back to the finish line to pick up my girlfriend who was volunteering at the medical tent and look for friends who had finished. I found Andrea, who had finished and was in great spirits. She finished her first Ironman and looked no worse for the wear (not quite, but she was vertical, which is always good). On the way home, we dropped Kathryn off at her apartment at 10:30, which is right on the running course, and watched some athletes silently shuffling through the darkness. 11:00 I was back home and shortly asleep while other competitors were finishing until midnight. It sure beat last time.