*sigh*

It's been over a week since the marathon.  The first couple days were great, a real high, after such a successful race.  Since then, though, I've been down.  At home for Thanksgiving break, I just didn't feel motivated to run.  I didn't do much of anything in fact.

I was pretty sore for the first couple of days after the race.  I'd say the soreness was gone by Thanksgiving (4 days) and I attempted to go on a run with my dog.  He was uncooperative, though, and I was getting pain in my left knee (the one that was hurting earlier in the year).  That was a very short run.  Today was the first real run I've done.  It was a short 49mins with two friends at a real casual pace.  I felt very lethargic and slow.  Going up an uphill, I felt worn out.  Plus, the left knee and left leg just didn't feel good - almost like it needed support.  

Anyway, I am going to go at the running kind of slow for the next week or so.  I want to really focus on my body and my health.  That means I need to do a lot of stretching, leg exercises, and crosstraining.  I'd like to incorporate some running drills like kareoka, skips, bounding, etc. along with some sort of lateral exercise, such as tennis or raquetball. 

We'll see what happens.  All I know is that I have to take care of myself in order to get to race day before I can worry about performance.

**P.S.: I'm lucky to have these friends in particular who keep my spirits high and are always entertaining and fun!  I look forward to more runs with them.  Hopefully we can do some Christmas runs to see the neighborhood lights.